National security at risk
Defence workers tell government to stop dithering
Reading time: 4 min
Unite representatives from across the UK’s defence sector walked up Downing Street today (25 February) to deliver a petition to the Prime Minister demanding that the government protect jobs and skills in the sector and invest in British manufacturing.
Just yards away hundreds of defence and aerospace workers had descended on Westminster to protest at government dithering over spending commitments that has placed their jobs in jeopardy.
Workers from across the country were outside the gates of Downing Street to have their voices heard. They are fighting for their jobs and skills to be preserved and asking the government to commit to funding defence projects with UK-based manufacturers that will simultaneously ensure UK national security.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham slammed the treasury for putting thousands of defence jobs and Britain’s national security at risk, saying: “Thousands of UK jobs are at risk because of dither and delay on decisions around defence spending. One year ago today the prime minister promised that increased defence spending would translate into British jobs, British skills, British growth and innovation. This promise has not been kept.
“Put simply, what the UK government is doing on British defence is against our national security, an attack on British jobs, and an act of self-harm.
“The Treasury’s delay to promised defence funding is the latest in a long line of bad decisions, including winter fuel, allowing British refineries to close, and a jobless net zero transition.”
In a speech outside 10 Downing Street today Sharon Graham added “If you can’t back Britain and back British jobs, maybe you are in the wrong job”.
Representatives from Unite and UK manufacturers such as BAE, Leonardo, Rolls Royce and Airbus were at Downing Street to see a petition handed to the prime minister. Nearly ten thousand workers, their families and community members in supply chains dependent on defence contracts urged Keir Starmer to invest in UK manufacturing.
Unite is calling on the government to urgently publish the Defence Investment Plan and to ensure it includes:
- The replacement of old RAF fighter jets with new Typhoons, fitted with Rolls Royce engines, equipped with British-built weapons from MBDA and assembled at BAE’s sites in Lancashire.
- The awarding of the new medium lift helicopter contract to Leonardo, to be manufactured at the company’s plant in Yeovil, Somerset.
- Provisions for the MoDs Military Satellite Communications System (Skynet) to continue being built in Portsmouth and Stevenage, as it has for the last 20 years.
- The purchase of the A400M military transport plane.
You can find out more about Unite’s campaign calling on the government to deliver the Defence Investment Plan here.
By Keith Hatch
Photos by Jess Hurd
