Responding to a parliamentary question from Neil Shastri-Hurst, MP for Solihull West and Shirley, the Ministry of Defence reiterated the significance of the UK’s defence industry, both in safeguarding national security and contributing to economic growth.
Luke Pollard, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence, highlighted that defence spending helps sustain around 434,000 jobs across the UK, with about 239,000 of these being supported by the industry itself.
Pollard noted the government’s commitment to prioritising personnel in the upcoming Strategic Defence Review, stating that the review will ensure that the workforce remains central to future defence operations. The government also announced plans to launch a Defence Industrial Strategy that will align national security with economic priorities, bolstering job growth and resilience throughout the country.
Pollard further outlined the role of industry partners in this broader vision, saying, “Our industry partners, of all sizes, are very much at the heart of our One Defence approach.” This initiative aims to strengthen the defence sector while ensuring that it contributes to the prosperity and resilience of the UK economy, reflecting the government’s integrated approach to security and economic development.
Hmm, there is a lot of positive noise around defence at the moment. I am wondering where the axe will fall – numbers would be my guess – again. Having said that a Defence Industrial Strategy is definitely needed. Lets be optimistic for a moment. Two assumptions; the squeeze is a short term blib and the country starts something of a recovery, and the government wakes up to the very real threat from Russia and Co.. (Big assumptions I know.) Yesterday’s news that the North Korea is sending troops to Russia to support / fight in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine… Read more »
While buying British and supporting our defence industry for a myriad of good economic reasons is obviously good, we need to be cautious of spending scarce defence funding on job creation schemes. We end up with helicopters like the Wildcat, when that happens. The strategy ( warships aside) should be to look at buying British first, but only backing the UK opinion if a good business case can be made, i.e, is it exportable?? If a UK procurement is being ‘politically forced’ purely because of the jobs aspect, then a proportional amount should come from the Department of Trade and… Read more »
I agree that forcing UK purchases is a mistake.
Buuuuut the UK R&D has actually being building since Tony Blair was told no to UKFMS by Washington and ITAR and the de-ITAR of numerous products.
The lazy assumption that US tech is always best even if it is 4x the cost has to buried.