Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gerald Howarth and Russell Brown

Monday 20th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Howarth]

It is pretty rich for a former Labour Secretary of State for Defence to criticise us when his Government did not have a defence review for 13 years. We have undertaken that defence review and indicated that we have a strong policy of support to industry. The Under-Secretary of State for Defence, my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Worcestershire (Peter Luff), has set out his White Paper in which we support British industry. This Government, led by the Prime Minister, have done more than any previous Labour Government to support British defence exports. That is a strategy. The 16 visits that I have made overseas are beginning to bear results. Just to give one example, BAE has sold three offshore patrol vessels to Brazil.

[Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab)]

The Minister’s good friend the Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions, the right hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling), has urged employers to give the nation’s unemployed priority for new positions. How exactly does that square with the Department’s White Paper, which states:

“The MOD does not consider wider employment, industrial, or economic factors in its value-for-money assessments.”?

[Mr Howarth]

Our job as Defence Ministers is to get the best equipment for our armed forces, but it is also true that we have a thriving defence industry, to which the right hon. Member for Coventry North East (Mr Ainsworth)referred. There are some 300,000 British Defence jobs and it is important to ensure that while we have to make savings as a result of the appalling budget deficit that we inherited from the previous Labour Government, we give support to British industry to export their goods overseas. I have heard from British industry that it has never had such strong support from Government as it is getting from this coalition Government.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gerald Howarth and Russell Brown

Monday 10th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Howarth]

I was very grateful to my right hon. Friend for bringing the trade unionists representing workers at both Brough and Warton to see me at the Conservative party conference in Manchester the other day. I will tell the House what I told them, which is that we believe that the Hawk is a fantastic, proven training aircraft—I have had the privilege of flying it recently. As he knows, the new T2 has the most sophisticated onboard air-combat simulator. The company and I are working very hard, along with my ministerial colleagues, to impress on the United States that it already operates the T-45 Goshawk, much of which came from Brough, and I hope that it will be able to buy the Hawk. Although the aircraft is unlikely, in serial numbers, to be built in the United Kingdom, the company hopes that there will be real prospects along the whole supply chain for British industry.

[Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab)]

I am sure the Minister recognises that one of our best engineering manufacturing sectors, which is world-leading as well as cutting edge, is the defence sector. Obviously, that brings with it the potential rewards of defence exports. Will he give a commitment that ongoing investment in research and technology will be linked closely to the scope to promote exports?

[Mr Howarth]

Exportability is a key component of all our procurement decisions; we are trying to build in exportability, not only to generate revenue, but to reduce the unit costs of the equipment to our armed forces. I can also tell the hon. Gentleman that we would not be having to make some of the difficult decisions that we are having to make had it not been for the destruction of the public finances by the previous Prime Minister and the shadow Secretary of State for Defence. If they had not destroyed the public finances of the United Kingdom, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State would not have had to make the difficult decisions that he has had to make.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gerald Howarth and Russell Brown

Monday 4th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Howarth]

It might have escaped the hon. Gentleman’s notice that the difficulties that the MOD faces are entirely the fault of the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown), the former Prime Minister, who destroyed the country’s public finances and forced the Government to take measures to try to restore them. We are ensuring that we maximise the defence industry’s opportunities for first-class British kit in the export market. If he would like representatives from Oxley to come and tell me about it, I would be happy to meet them.

[Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State has made his position clear: defence procurement will be based on open competition in the global market and buying off the shelf. How does that square with supporting UK industry? The hon. Member for Kingswood (Chris Skidmore) asked whether he recognises the absolute necessity for ongoing support for research and technology within the sector to make it clear to companies in the sector that the Government are firmly behind what they are doing.

[Mr Howarth]

We fully recognise the importance of research and technology, which is why the Government have sought hard to protect that budget and why my hon. Friend the Minister with responsibility for defence equipment, support and technology is also working hard and will shortly produce a White Paper on the subject. I assure hon. Members that nobody is more aware than the Government of the importance of the British manufacturing defence base as a basis upon which to generate wealth for the UK through exports.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gerald Howarth and Russell Brown

Monday 13th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Howarth]

I hope that the hon. Gentleman would be the first to accept that we have one of the toughest export licensing controls for military equipment in the world. I yield to no one in praising the efforts of both the present Government and the last Conservative Government to ensure that, as far as possible, equipment has gone to the right people and not to those who would misuse it. We are, of course, governed by the law as well.

I entirely take the hon. Gentleman’s point about small arms, but unfortunately the world is awash with small arms, many of which do not come from the United Kingdom.

[Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab)]

Even during these current difficult economic times, the UK’s defence export sector requires ongoing research and technology investment, but if we are to increase levels of exports in the defence sector, how does that square with the Secretary of State’s view, admittedly when in opposition, that US-UK interoperability is the key and he would intend to follow a much more pro-American profile in procurement?

[Mr Howarth]

Of course having a viable and successful defence industrial base in this country is very important; there is nothing to be interoperable with otherwise. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that we place a high premium on interoperability, partly because we think it will help to drive down costs if our equipment is interoperable with that of other countries. The United States is, of course, our principal ally in these matters, and is likely to continue to be—provided, of course, that they are helpful to us when we need their help in supporting our industry.