HELENSBURGH'S MSP has welcomed an announcement from the Labour party's new shadow defence secretary that the party is still committed to the renewal of Trident.

Jackie Baillie said the commitment by Nia Griffith – which goes against the stated position of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and many of her party colleagues – was welcome news for workers at Faslane and Coulport, and for businesses in the Helensburgh area.

In an interview with the British Forces Broadcasting Service this week, Ms Griffith said she would not try to overturn the decision at Labour's 2015 party conference to reaffirm its support for the UK's nuclear deterrent – meaning the party will officially commit to the renewal of all four of the submarines which carry the Trident missiles.

Ms Baillie said the announcement was “a victory for trade unionists and moderate voices in the Labour Party” who warned that scrapping Trident would result in tens of thousands of job losses at Faslane and across Scotland.

Ms Baillie – who defied party colleagues in a vote on Trident at the Scottish Parliament last November – spoke in favour of renewing the deterrent at Labour's UK conference last month.

“I am delighted that Nia Griffith has been clear from the very start by putting an end to months of speculation about Labour’s position,” Ms Baillie said.

“The base directly employs 6,800 people according to official government figures and a further 4,500 jobs depend on the base indirectly through the supply chain and local spend.

“The total number of jobs is already on the increase thanks to the decision taken when Gordon Brown was Prime Minister to make Faslane the base for the UK’s whole submarine fleet.

“The impact of the base on our local economy cannot be underestimated or brushed aside by the SNP.”

The House of Commons voted in July in favour of the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system and the manufacture of four replacement submarines – which will be based at HM Naval Base Clyde, the home of the UK's submarine service.

MPs voted by 472 to 117 in favour of renewal, though Labour was deeply split on the issue, with 140 of its MPs in favour of renewal and only 47 – including the party's only Scottish MP, Ian Murray – against, putting most of the parliamentary party at odds with Mr Corbyn's own position.

In Scotland, MSPs at Holyrood voted 96-17 last November in favour of a motion calling on the UK government to drop its plans for Trident renewal; Ms Baillie was the only Labour MSP to vote against the motion.

The Labour party in Scotland opposes renewal, although its leader, Kezia Dugdale, supports it.

Helensburgh's Westminster MP, the SNP's Brendan O'Hara, said this week: “Given that the Labour party in Scotland is led by someone who supports the UK party position on Trident, while the UK Labour party is led by someone who supports the Scottish position, and not forgetting of course, that in her career Jackie Baillie herself has campaigned on both positions, I'm not surprised that in that chaos, Ms Baillie has found a Labour Party position on Trident she can support.

“But with the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish government, the SNP, the Labour Party in Scotland, the Greens, the STUC , the Scottish churches and of course, 58 of Scotland’s 59 MPs all implacably opposed to Trident, Jackie Baillie finds herself hopelessly out of step with Scottish public opinion but once again perfectly in-tune with the Tories.”