Suppliers' plea over defence spending
THE cluster group representing North-east suppliers to the defence industries has called for a more consistent approach to public spending decisions as the Government looked today to be watering down its commitments to the Trident replacement
Government plans to update and replace the Trident nuclear weapons system, including its four Vanguard submarines, were approved by MPs in 2007 - but only after a huge Labour rebellion left ministers relying on Conservative support.
Now Gordon Brown says Britain might cut its number of submarines from four to three if it would help secure a deal to dramatically reduce the world’s nuclear arsenal. The Ministry of Defence rejected suggestions that it was purely a cost cutting exercise to reduce the £20 billion bill for replacing Trident.
Robin Fox, MD of Northern Defence Industries, said: “We are having too many knee-jerk reactions and too much short-term thinking - that’s understandable coming up to an election.”
He urged both Labour and the Tories to honour their commitment to undertake a strategic review of defence spending next year.
“We need something that gives us a firm view of what our role in the world is going to be.
“The SDR needs to be led by foreign policy which says what is our position, what are we trying to achieve in the world and what means do we need to achieve them.”
Mr Fox said it made no sense to cut spending on what he described as “big ticket items”, including Vanguard and the two aircraft carriers for which work has already started on the Tees. “It’s a false argument that we can save money by cutting the carriers because a lot of the expenditure has been committed to them. You would be spending as much money in penalties as you would save.”
