LANCASHIRE MPs have warned ministers against cancelling major defence contracts, claiming it could have a devastating impact on manufacturing jobs.

The Government was pressed in Parliament to go ahead with orders for Typhoon jets, two aircraft carriers and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters intended to fly from them.

The debate followed fears that up to 4,000 Lancashire BAE Systems jobs could be under threat at the Samlesbury and Warton sites if the orders are cut.

Conservative MP for the Fylde Mark Menzies said the decisions were about the UK being able to maintain its position as a manufacturing base for military aircraft.

He said: "This is about the UK being serious about ever again playing a role as a strategic sovereign capability, about being able to manufacture our own aircraft, to own our own technology, to develop our own high tech skills base and continue to be a world leader in what we do.

"It's also fundamental to achieving what the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer have set out in their objective of rebalancing the economy.

"If we fail to take that into account and if we fail to really get behind the UK military aircraft sector, then not just the North West will have lost out but I believe the entire economy of the UK will be much the poorer."

He urged defence minister Peter Luff to 'do what you can for the future of F-35 and Typhoon'.

Labour's MP for Preston Mark Hendrick pleaded for the two aircraft carriers to be spared the axe in the forthcoming Strategic Defence and Spending Review.

He said: "If we don't get both of those aircraft carriers manufactured ... then it will very much call into question the commitment to aircraft to go on to those carriers and indeed whether or not we've got a share of the F-35 programme, the Joint Strike Fighter programme."

Conservative MP for Pendle Andrew Stephenson said many MPs had expressed concern about the potential impact of the imminent defence review on the military aviation industry.

"Can I suggest that the biggest risk to our military aviation is not the Strategic Defence and Security Review, but the muddled and incoherent programme left by the previous government," he said.

"Before Members opposite lecture the coalition Government about the financial implications of reviewing certain defence contracts, Members opposite might want to remember that with a defence budget of some £35 billion a year, they left behind an overspend in the equipment programme of £38 billion by 2020.

"That is what we have to deal with now and hence why we're having a full review of all the contracts currently ongoing."

Junior defence minister Peter Luff said no decisions had yet been taken on any of the issues discussed in the debate, adding: "Everything is in the pot."