Defence Readiness

Richard Baker Excerpts

Wednesday 20th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Richard Baker (Glenrothes and Mid Fife) (Lab)]

Earlier this month I joined the workers, apprentices and management at the Methil yard in my constituency, where they christened the Seahorse barge. At 85 metres long, 25 metres wide, weighing approximately 1,400 tonnes, Seahorse is an impressive achievement and will play a critical role in enabling the construction of the Royal Navy’s three fleet solid support ships.

The sun was shining on Methil that day, the Forth was sparkling, and it was fantastic to join the workers, who are rightly proud of delivering this project on time and on budget. It was particularly good to hear from the apprentices at the yard about the skills and experience they had gained from being involved and about their hopes for the future. It was a day of pride and joy for the workers—and what a contrast it was to my first visit at only a few days after I was elected to this place. Then, Harland & Wolff had fallen into administration, and the future of the yard and its skilled workforce was under very real threat, but it was Labour Ministers who stepped in and worked with Navantia UK to save Methil and three other yards across the United Kingdom.

Methil has reaped the rewards. Where there was once a bleak future, now there is investment and opportunity in a community where too many people and too many families are still struggling. Since acquiring Methil, Navantia has grown the workforce from 180 to 260, and it is now on a recruitment drive to fill a further 110 roles. That includes recruiting 50 more apprentices to join the existing 54 apprentices at the yard—brilliant opportunities for young people from the local area for the future.

Navantia UK has invested £27 million in upgrading the yard and its facilities. That investment has turned around the fortunes of the yard, which has won a further two contracts for marine infrastructure that the workforce will deliver in the coming months. The transformation means that the yard is ready to play a key role in the delivery of future defence contracts. Methil is a living example of what can be achieved through defence investment as an engine for growth. Of course, growth and growing our economy is at the heart of the King’s Speech.

Yesterday, I was delighted to hear my right hon. Friend the Defence Secretary set out the measure of that ambition in his speech to the Good Growth Foundation. He made it clear that our increased defence spending will bring investment into the British defence sector. Scotland shows the difference that that can make with a £10 billion deal with Norway for frigates to be built on the Clyde, supporting 2,000 jobs until the end of the next decade and a further 2,000 jobs in the supply chain. How often we have talked about nostalgia for the great days of the Clyde and fearing for its future? The Government are delivering contracts that make the future bright. For Fife, with the yard at Methil and the yard at Rosyth, of which my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) is a doughty champion, as Ministers know, the defence investment plan will be vital for the future of our local area and our defence businesses.

I am as impatient as anybody for the plan’s publication, but I understand how important it is to get it right and ensure that it is ready with the right strategy when it is published. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is aware of my view that a key part of getting that plan right is securing work for Methil and for Belfast through Programme Euston, to deliver new dry docks for Faslane. My experience of working with the workforce, the management and the unions at Methil is that the case for investment in British yards, in British businesses and in our workers is not only about the benefits it brings to our economies and our communities; it is because the skills, the capabilities and the experience in our defence industry is second to none across the world. That is why taking forward this strategy is right for our economy, for our armed forces and, at a time when we face so much global uncertainty, for our national security. I hope that it is one that the Government will continue to pursue.