Labour MP for Plymouth Devonport Alison Seabeck said: "In a sense there could be some value in this for Plymouth because there will no doubt be a reassessment of the needs and demand of the fleet, and as we have been saying we may not necessarily need lots of the top-end specialised vessels, which would have ended up in Portsmouth, and therefore a number of the more basic vessels could end up in Plymouth.
That is just one example of what could come out of this."
She added: "It is a high spending and complex department and it is clear from recent theatres of war that demands and needs of each of the services change quite rapidly for the different environments they are in.
I think it is important that we have this discussion and I think most people in the armed forces will welcome it."