Richard Foord
Main Page: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)Department Debates - View all Richard Foord's debates with the Ministry of Defence
New Medium Helicopter Contract
Richard Foord Excerpts(1 day, 11 hours ago)
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Luke Pollard
The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to talk about small businesses and the wider supply chain. A large component part of the defence industrial strategy talks about those things as well; I am sure he has read that strategy, so he will be familiar with it. We want to see our suppliers in the UK expand. We also want to see more of them selling to the UK military; indeed, lots of our small companies sell to foreign militaries, but not yet to the UK military. We are launching the office for small business growth later this month. That will enable an easier route for UK SMEs to sell their products and services into the UK military—something that, time and again, they have said has been hard in the past. We are making it easier for the future.
Richard Foord (Honiton and Sidmouth) (LD)
I, too, am concerned about the potential loss of jobs in Yeovil and the wider south-west if we do not see a positive decision on the production of the new medium helicopter at Yeovil. Late last year, we learned that the Government had failed to negotiate access to Security Action for Europe, a €150 billion defence fund. Leonardo is an Anglo-Italian company, and was also supportive of UK access to SAFE. Can the Minister reassure us that this lack of a decision on the new medium helicopter is completely divorced from access to SAFE?
Luke Pollard
Yes, I can. We were very clear that we wanted to explore the options for the UK participating in SAFE, but we were also clear that we would not join at any price. Unfortunately, we were not able to make the value for the UK taxpayer and for UK industry match in those discussions with SAFE. We continue to co-operate very closely with not just the European Union, but our European allies—that can be seen from the new agreements we have signed, such as the Trinity House agreement with Germany and more collaboration and co-operation with Poland—and there is more to come.