Controversial plans to transfer jobs from RAF Cosford to Wales would be reviewed if the Conservative Party came to power, it was claimed today.

Mark Pritchard, Tory prospective parliamentary candidate for The Wrekin, said the government’s Defence Training Review “would be reviewed and examined in fine detail” if David Cameron became Prime Minister.

As part of the programme the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering (DCAE), based at the airbase near Shifnal and providing training for aircraft engineers and tradesmen across the British armed forces, will move to St Athan in Wales from 2014.

It led to fears the Shropshire site could be “mothballed” with hundreds more jobs under threat as civilian staff based there would have nothing to do.

Last month the Ministry of Defence said plans to move troops based in Germany to Cosford, to replace those leaving, had been delayed by two years.

Defence Minister Bill Rammell said the planned movement of 2,600 troops and their families from Germany to Cosford as part of Operation Borona, due to start in 2016, would now not take place until 2018.

Military chiefs blamed the need to “accommodate other defence resource priorities” for the delay in moving 102 Logistic Brigade to Cosford.

Mr Pritchard, who has been campaigning to secure the future of the 70-year-old base, said today: “If the Conservatives form the next government we are committed to a major Strategic Defence Review which will examine every major defence spending commitment by Labour ministers.

“This will include the flawed Defence Training Review programme which will tear the heart out of Cosford and the local community.”

Mr Pritchard’s Back RAF Cosford campaign on Facebook has attracted more than 700 followers.

By Wayne Beese