The Labour Government has announced £2.5 million in funding to secure a new Welding Development Facility in Glasgow, after the Scottish Government declined to back the project.
The announcement will be made by Defence Secretary John Healey during his speech to the Labour Party Conference, according to the party.
The £11 million centre is intended to provide specialist welding training and support a pipeline of defence workers. It will be operated initially by Rolls Royce Submarines in partnership with Malin Group and the University of Strathclyde, with capacity for other organisations in the future. The facility will be delivered through the Government’s Unity contract with Rolls Royce, an eight-year agreement worth around £9 billion to sustain support for the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarine fleet.
In his remarks, Mr Healey stated: “Labour is proud of Scotland’s maritime heritage, and we are taking action to ensure its success long into the future. Where the SNP won’t back Scottish industry, young people or our national security, Labour will step in.” He added that recent initiatives, including record defence exports, were aimed at “making Scotland a shipbuilding superpower once again.”
The facility is part of a wider package of measures announced in the Defence Industrial Strategy, including a new Defence Growth Deal for Scotland and a £182 million UK-wide skills programme to expand the defence workforce. According to Labour, the investment will help to safeguard jobs in Clyde shipbuilding and support the wider industry at sites including Rosyth and Methil.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also welcomed the decision, saying: “Scotland has world-class skills and a proud shipbuilding tradition, but time and time again they have been failed by the SNP. Once again this is Labour proving that we are the only party that will back investment to protect our security and support high paid jobs.”
The Scottish Executive at Holyrood is very vocal on how other branches of Government should spend its money but is often more conservative about opening its own purse. It’s your pal who expects a feed at a top nosh restaurant when you’re paying but is really enthusiastic about KFC the following weekend when he’s paying.
What is really odd is how they will subsidise Ferguson but not invest in it or support something like this that does genuinely support skills and other industries.
It’s actually smack bang in line with their ideology, no Oil, no Gas and absolutely no Nuclear anything. There isn’t a cat in hells chance of them ever spending a single Penny on supporting jobs with anything to do with Nuclear Civil or Defence.
On the other hand I’m really happy the UK Government has stepped in to fund this announcement, Healey had it in his speech this morning and called them out over it.
As for RR Submarines involvement, I’m really not surprised as it expands on the existing Glasgow facility and provides another source of highly skilled engineers. It isn’t like there aren’t other companies in Glasgow and Scotland involved in the Dreadnought / SSN(A) supply chain (just don’t tell the SNP).
The irony of the SNPs stance is that in their 2014 Independence manifesto funding for an independent Scotland would mainly come from the energy sector. 🤷🏼♂️
The SNP of today is very different to the SNP of 2014. Much more “progressive” and dominated by student politics than it was under Salmond.
It’s because it has ties with the UK defence industry which happens to be a boon for the Scottish economy. That conflicts with their separatist agenda and so they try to undermine and ignore it. Fingers in the ears, la,la,la, everything is rubbish.
Indeed anything that creates a greater tie to the wider Uk is counter to their dogma.
Jonathan it’s very highly welding for Nuclear Submarines so an absolute SNP no no !
Not only that Rodney… but Submarines build in England for England..English nuclear submarines..that are then forced on poor Scotland…spit in their eyes.
Yes the terrible English force all these terrible highly paid jobs on Scotland and force all that tax into SNPs coffers.
It would be so much better if Scottish economy depended on the SNP’s centre of excellence – Fergusons!
WOW !. Probably the main committment to defence iat this conference.
Worst thing about this is the SNP will claim credit for it. Even worse 37% of people in Scotland still believe them. It’s shocking we live in a country where 37% of the Vote guarantees you government.
Labour will have their eye on the 7th May Scottish Parliament Election in 6 months
SNP have yet again scord an own goal not supporting a 11m training centre (RR /Glaswegian Malin Group)
For 2.5m Labour hopefully have put another nail in the coffin of this inept SNP
Somebody please tell the SNP that their Ferguson yard is not helped by their decision to buy ferries from abroad yet again
Oh and the fabrication work they do on the Type 26 is funded by the UK taxpayer
Unfortunately a third of Scots still support them in a recent poll
(It is interestiing to see the 2021 election results in Wikipedia and latest Sclottish poll)
Politics is a strange thing. A couple of days ago, I watched Laura Kuenssberg tell the Prime Minister that he was in political trouble because “if there were an election right now” Labour would only have 100 seats. The PM didn’t seem at all surprised, which is odd given that he’s the one that would have had to call such an election. If there were an immediate election, it would be improper and illegal, and the results invalid. People know that, and off-the-cuff survey answers 15 months into a five-year term don’t accurately reflect voting intentions at the end of it.
We elect our Parliaments for up to five years and interim surveys aren’t particularly important, other than to the journalists who like to use them as some sort of cudgel; a week is a long time in politics. The SNP should be concentrating on running Scotland properly now, which IMO should include helping out Scottish industry and Scottish jobs. They’ve been given time by the voters, and we’ll see in six months if their time has run out. I wonder how hard that poll’s one-third support for the SNP will prove to be when it counts.
As a Scot, I despair at the SBp, they are an absolute disaster for Scotland, they put virtue signalling above all else which is why education, health is in such a mess.
To me supporting the skills academy was a no brainer but they did nothing.
Considering the ship building coming down the pipeline that we know of, they should be investing in kills and Ferguson’s .
I utterly despair at the charlatans.
IMHO the UK Government is intent on boosting growth by kickstarting extra Defence spend, the SNP don’t get it, don’t want it and are completely blinkered when it comes to boosting GDP via industry (Civil or Defence).
What they should do is use the UK Government investment to leverage civil industrial revitalisation and hence grow the economy and just turn down their anti UK rhetoric whilst they do so.
Fergusons is the prime example of how not to support industry but it could be the kernel of something much better. In the 60’s there was no Scottish Assembly but the UK Government spent a fortune at Inchgreen on a massive Dry Dock and a modern well sized shipyard, it’s sat there rotting under its present owners. They should speak to UK Government and between them move Fergusons to that site and redevelop it for the civilian market (and some defence work).
Still arguing over who and whether to spend £2.5 million? Yep team GB is really taking rearmament seriously. Fortunately one of my neighbours is pushing forward with his pigeon breeding programme so next gen comms are on the way to being sorted. Seriously this argument over £2.5million for such a vital industrial site says all you need to know why Putin/Trump/Xi and Kim think we are a joke.
It’s £2.5 million on top of a £2.5 Billion investment in the U.K DNE a lot of which is in Scotland to support maintenance, RR Submarines opened a new office / facility in Glasgow last year so it all ties together quite neatly.
Soon we will have a skilled workforce of 10, 000 persons with nothing for them to build as the orders are too slow in coming.
AA