Defence Industry and Shipbuilding

Debate between Tobias Ellwood and Philip Dunne

Wednesday 11th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Ellwood]

There was a UK bid.

[Mr Dunne]

May I help my right hon. Friend?

[Mr Ellwood]

I would like to move on, so I am going to make some progress and perhaps invite the Minister responsible for procurement, who will be concluding the debate, to go into the detail of the bid. If Labour is taking a position of only taking British offers and not looking abroad, it is not taking taxpayer value for money into consideration.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Ellwood]

The Parker report is about our approach to shipbuilding, and it has led to our shipbuilding strategy and our defence industrial strategy.

[Mr Dunne]

rose—

[Mr Ellwood]

If I can make some progress, I may actually be able to answer the question.

[Mr Dunne]

Will the Minister give way?

[Mr Ellwood]

I am glad that there is nothing happening later.

[Mr Dunne]

My right hon. Friend has been generous about my report, which was published on Monday, and I am grateful for the other comments about the report by Members on both sides of the House. On page 53 of the report, I refer to the fleet solid support ship and make the point that the fact that we are currently a member of the European Union means that we are precluded from taking advantage of the article 346 exemption to require that ship to be built in the UK. One of my recommendations is that we should take advantage of the opportunity of Brexit to consider the opportunity, after we leave the EU on 29 March 2019, to build UK content into our own procurement rules, which might allow us to change the position, but we cannot do that today.

[John Spellar]

Not true.