Unite warns defence job losses amid investment plan delay

Trade union Unite has warned that continued delays to the government’s Defence Investment Plan are putting UK defence jobs and industrial skills at risk, according to the union.

The Defence Investment Plan was originally expected to be published alongside the Strategic Defence Review last summer, but has since been delayed several times. Unite said it has now been advised the document may not appear until March or later, increasing uncertainty across the defence manufacturing sector. Unite represents thousands of workers across the UK defence industry and said it has held repeated discussions with government over recent months, including submitting reports calling for defence spending commitments to be translated into long-term industrial investment.

The union said speculation over the potential purchase of US-made defence equipment, rather than domestically produced systems, is contributing to instability for employers and workers. Unite argued that the issue extends beyond employment and directly affects national security and the preservation of specialist industrial skills. According to Unite, the UK’s low investment rate compared with other G7 nations risks undermining its ability to sustain capabilities such as combat aircraft, helicopters, uncrewed systems and satellites. The union said prolonged uncertainty could lead to the loss of highly specialised skills that are difficult to regenerate once lost.

Unite is urging the government to publish the Defence Investment Plan as a matter of urgency and to ensure it includes commitments to several major programmes. These include replacing older RAF fighter aircraft with new Typhoons assembled in the UK and equipped with British-built engines and weapons, awarding the medium lift helicopter programme to Leonardo’s Yeovil facility, and retaining domestic production of the Skynet military satellite communications system.

Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, said: “The government’s inertia on this issue is an act of self-harm. With employers planning in the dark and threatening job losses as a result, the government needs to stop the dither and delay.”

She added: “Failing to back British defence manufacturing would be a devastating own goal, destroying jobs and skills.”

Graham said earlier commitments linking increased defence spending to jobs, skills and innovation now needed to be backed by firm decisions.

“When the announcement was made for higher defence spending, it came with guarantees around jobs, skills and innovation. We now need to move beyond the warm words and deliver,” she said.

Unite also confirmed that senior defence representatives at Leonardo and other major defence sites have written directly to Prime Minister Keir Starmer calling for swift action to prevent job losses and safeguard industrial capability.