THOUSANDS of hi-tech East Lancashire jobs are hanging in the balance due to Government delays, a union chief warned today.

BAE Systems at Samlesbury and Warton employs thousands of workers from across East Lancashire.

But Amicus general secretary Derek Simpson was today in crisis talks with workers at Warton, warning that jobs will be lost forever if the Government does not sign up soon to the next stage of the controversial Eurofighter Typhoon project.

A delay between the first and second batch of the Eurofighter Typhoon is at the core of the union's fears -- with the Government's failure to formally sign the order to commission the next batch of planes causing unease among managers and workers at the site.

And alleged leaks from the MoD to the national press, suggesting the Government will not give the go-ahead for the second batch of planes, are fuelling concerns.

Mr Simpson said he is concerned that any further delay or cut back in the 232 planes ordered will cause a gap in production and job losses. The warning has been backed by Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans who said the Government need to stop dithering if livelihoods are to be saved.

The MoD said today the contract could be signed in the coming months but would not give specific dates.

Mr Simpson said: "We are lobbying government at the highest levels to try and resolve the contract issue before this becomes critical for the 9,000 highly skilled workers at Warton and Samlesbury and thousands more jobs in the North West that depend upon these sites." Mr Evans said: "I understand there is going to be a time-lag between the first tranche and the beginning of the next and BAE simply cannot employ people to do nothing.

"They need to plan and they cannot plan at the moment.

"The Government need to stop dithering or hundreds of job losses could be the result."

More than 1,000 BAE workers at Samlesbury manufacture key components for the UK Eurofighter, which goes through the final assembly process at Warton.