Royal Yacht

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts

Wednesday 26th October 2016 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they are giving to commissioning a new Royal Yacht.

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Earl Howe) (Con)]

My Lords, the Government have no requirement for a royal yacht and are therefore giving no consideration at the current time to the commissioning of one.

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con)]

My Lords, that is a very disappointing Answer. When I was Secretary of State, I hosted a dinner on the royal yacht in Toronto to which we invited the top industrialists, who flew thousands of miles to be there. I did not think they were coming to see me. Given that more than 100 Back- Bench Conservative MPs, the present Foreign Secretary and a former Foreign Secretary have all expressed support for a privately funded royal yacht, will my noble friend not at least agree to spend the money raised by the Daily Telegraph on a privately funded cost-benefit analysis? What possible objection could there be to the Government giving their full support to that?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I am sure that my noble friend underestimates his pulling power. If private enterprise, however defined, believed that there was a business case for a new royal yacht, we would of course look at it, but we would still be left with the question of who would pay for the vessel. Given that no government department has a need for a royal yacht, it is hard to see how any public funding could be justified.