Fabian Hamilton
Main Page: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)Department Debates - View all Fabian Hamilton's debates with the Ministry of Defence
(5 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Stuart Andrew
As I have said, the EU has raised questions about the classification of some of those countries and the decisions that they have made. Also, some of those vessels are manned by those countries’ navies, whereas ours will be manned by the auxiliaries.
Fabian Hamilton (Leeds North East) (Lab)
All of us on the Opposition Benches were heartened to hear the Defence Secretary say recently of the Ministry of Defence that
“we can and we must buy British”.
That would represent a welcome shift from her predecessor’s tendency to simply buy off the shelf from abroad, but the British shipbuilding industry needs action, not just warm words. So will the Minister now reconsider the Government’s short-sighted decision to put these ships out to international tender, and build them here instead?