Oral Answers to Questions

Joshua Reynolds Excerpts

Monday 24th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Maria Eagle]

I very much agree with my hon. Friend. Of course, there are skills shortages across much of manufacturing, not only in defence, so there is certainly going to be an issue. I can tell him that the apprentices I have met in the defence industry tend to smile the whole time. They are getting extremely good training for lifelong excellent jobs, so I am absolutely certain that we can get that across to young people and ensure that defence gets its fair share of the skilled people that we need.

[Mr Joshua Reynolds (Maidenhead) (LD)]

T5. With the UK frozen out of the EU rearmament scheme while defence contractors and security firms in Albania, Norway and South Korea stand to benefit, what estimates has the Secretary of State made of the potential loss of economic activity in the UK as a result?

[John Healey]

The strongest argument for saying that there needs to be UK collaboration and co-operation with the EU and across Europe is that some of our best capabilities, from the Typhoon and the Meteor to Storm Shadow, have been developed through multinational efforts including the UK. It is that sort of collaboration that we want to secure for the future, and the EU White Paper gives us a basis for starting to negotiate that.