TWO East Lancashire MPs have said it was 'too early' to say whether a massive defence contract which safeguards thousands of jobs had survived power-sharing talks.

Before the General Election, the Liberal Democrats pledged to axe part of the Eurofighter Typhoon deal to save cash.

Aerospace industry experts said scrapping the Ministry of Defence’s tranche 3b order would cost thousands of East Lancashire jobs at BAE Systems in Samlesbury and supply chain firms across the region.

But now it is unclear whether the Lib Dems’ pledge made it through frantic talks over a coalition government between party bosses and Conservative colleagues.

Ribble Valley Conservative MP Nigel Evans said: “It is way too early to say. All I can say is that I spoke to our new Defence Secretary Liam Fox and told him not to forget how important Eurofighter is to our area.

“I also mentioned it to one of our advisors, who was part of the discussions with the Lib Dems.”

Burnley’s new Liberal Democrat MP Gordon Birtwistle added: “I don’t think they got down to that level of detail in the talks.”

Before the election, Labour Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said whether the MoD went through with a contract for tranche 3b of Eurofighter would be decided following a strategic defence review, due by next year