Bombardier

Lord Davies of Stamford Excerpts

Tuesday 10th October 2017 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I tend to agree with my noble friend. It is interesting to hear about his direct involvement in Shorts going back a number of years. He is right that it is perhaps rather ironic that there are so many jobs—23,000 is the correct figure—in the US. I would argue that Boeing taking this view is an own goal.

However, Boeing remains very important to us in the UK. Its contribution to the UK is considerable. There are 2,200 people directly employed by Boeing, and that figure is expected to rise to 4,000 by 2025. The annual supply chain spend is £2.1 billion and the annual UK R&D spend is £11 million per annum. The House may know that Boeing has a new civil aerospace manufacturing facility in Sheffield. It is Boeing’s first civil factory in Europe. There is also a hangar in Gatwick and a repair facility in Lossiemouth. It is important for us to continue to develop the long-term partnership with Boeing, and as I said earlier, its action, which is inexplicable, must be overturned. I hope, as my noble friend said, that Boeing will see sense and withdraw its petition.

[Lord Davies of Stamford (Lab)]

My Lords, so far in this matter the Government do not seem to have had much or indeed any influence with Boeing, despite the billions of pounds that we spend every year from our defence procurement budget on its excellent products. The Prime Minister does not seem to have had much or indeed any influence with President Trump, and the government proposal for her to go to Beijing does not seem to be much of a priority for Xi Jinping. The Government’s main priority at the moment seems to be to split up with the European Union, turning 27 countries that have traditionally been friends and partners of ours into opposite numbers in an increasingly divisive negotiation. The whole picture is not a very encouraging one, is it, from the point of view of British influence in the world?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I completely disagree with the noble Lord. He is not right to put it in this way. I have made it clear that the Prime Minister has been in touch twice with President Trump and have highlighted all the calls and meetings so far. Her Majesty’s Government are working tirelessly, and will continue to do so, in conjunction with counterparts in the Canadian Government, to encourage Boeing to withdraw its complaint and to seek a negotiated settlement with Bombardier. The Prime Minister, as I mentioned earlier, has been discussing the issue constantly with Prime Minister Trudeau, and Greg Clark has also had a number of conversations with Canada’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland. An enormous amount is going on, and I refute what the noble Lord is saying about alleged inaction from our side.