In his Portakabin at the BAE Systems factory in Warton, union rep Steve McGuinness is weighing up the challenges facing the UK’s defence industry when, abruptly, he has to stop talking. A jet is taking off from the Lancashire site’s airfield and the noise is so loud that it’s impossible to hear him for a few seconds.
When McGuinness begins speaking again, the experienced engineer – who served as a mechanical fitter on Tornado, Hawk and Typhoon aircraft before taking on his role with Unite – explains why Andy Burnham must stay true to his word about investing in British arms manufacturing if and when he becomes Prime Minister.
Burnham, who is expected to succeed Sir Keir Starmer later this month, said this week that with the global political situation “darkening”, the UK needs to invest more in the armed forces. He pledged to “back British workers and businesses” with this spending, “to generate economic growth and create apprenticeships and jobs in communities that have seen opportunities drain away”.
It’s places like the Warton plant, located between Preston and Blackpool, that need protecting and supporting, argues McGuinness. In this area, “deindustrialisation has taken its toll and BAE is one of the last remaining big employers, certainly in engineering”.
When jobs are lost or shifts are cut, it impacts the whole area. For example, “the local sandwich shop doesn’t open on the weekend anymore because there’s no overtime going on,” he tells The i Paper. “But if people start moving away from the area, that has bigger knock-on effects.”
One of the best things Burnham could do, he says, is order more Typhoon fighters.
Sir Keir Starmer announced a Turkish export order of 20 Typhoon jets at BAE Warton in October but workers hope the UK will also buy more of the jets (Photo: Stefan Rousseau – WPA Pool/Getty)Warton’s production line for the jets paused work last summer when the RAF’s final batch of Typhoons was completed, with uncertainty over hundreds of jobs. They were saved a few months later when a Turkish export order of 20 fighters was signed, but workers feel that won’t be enough.
McGuinness warns that unless the UK buys more of the jets, there could be a long gap between the final Typhoons being made and the next-generation Tempest – which is still at a design and development stage – being ready for manufacture.
“It’s a very niche job, making supersonic jets,” he says. If apprentices don’t have Typhoons to work on, “we’re really concerned that when we get to Tempest production, there’s going to be nobody who’s ever worked on a live aircraft left to build it.”
He adds that the Ministry of Defence’s failure to order a replacement for the Warton-built Hawk means it is now struggling to supply the Red Arrows display team with new jets.
McGuinness emphasises he isn’t asking Burnham for a handout. The RAF has begun retiring its oldest Typhoons, which would need replacing to ensure the air force has enough jets before the Tempest comes into service – and in McGuinness’s mind, it makes sense to do this by ordering more Typhoons instead of the largely American-made Lockheed-Martin F35A.
If the UK continues to back the Typhoon, that may also give other countries greater confidence to place more export orders. “Otherwise, it’s like going to a Ford dealership and finding all the car salesmen drive Mercedes.”
Having “lost a bit of hope” in Starmer, McGuiness has faith that Burnham will protect and support Warton. “He’s spent time in Manchester, the nearest big city to us, and he’s done the business there… He seems sincere.”
Workers at the Rolls Royce jet-engine factory in Filton, near Bristol, will also hope for more investment (Photo: Peter Nicholls/Getty)‘Treasury sees defence as drain on public spending’
Burnham’s pledge to invest more in sovereign production capability, made in an article for The Times, comes just weeks after John Healey resigned as Starmer’s Defence Secretary, complaining the Government wasn’t releasing enough money for the long-delayed £15bn Defence Investment Plan.
Healey told the BBC this week: “The Treasury still often sees defence as a drain on public spending and not the driver of economic growth that we’ve demonstrated in two years.”
His successor at the MoD, Dan Jarvis, has backed Burnham by saying UK firms should “have an even bigger role in giving our armed forces the kit and technology they need”.
“With 85 per cent of defence spending currently staying in the UK, we are already in a strong position, but I want to go further,” said Jarvis.
Some commentators say that while this is fine in principle, the most important factor is that weapons are as effective and useful for personnel as any foreign alternatives they could have been using instead or may encounter on the battlefield.
ADS, the trade association for British defence firms, says the sector has been an unheralded success story over the last decade with employment growing by 35 per cent to 189,500. Its median wage is £41,200, 25 per cent above the UK-wide average.
Dan Jarvis, left, has backed Andy Burnham’s pledge to back British defence companies (Photos: Getty)Raymond Duguid has worked at the Babcock shipyard in Rosyth, across the Forth river from Edinburgh, for 42 years. Like McGuinness, he is now a Unite rep, so he is speaking for the union and the workers he represents rather than for the company – and he is also hoping Burham backs up his words with action.
With about 2,000 employees at Rosyth, taking on 100 apprentices a year, it’s one of the biggest private-sector employers in the Fife region.
“When parents come in with the apprentices, you can see the real pride in what their kids are achieving, the skills they’re picking up,” he says.
The Defence Investment Plan cancelled development of new Type 32 frigates and Type 83 destroyers which Rosyth was expecting to build. Babcock is now waiting to hear if it will instead receive an order for at least six new Common Combat Vessels, which will act as motherships for deployment of aerial and marine drones.
Duguid thinks Starmer has been given “a hard time” but says governments need to improve their long-term procurement processes, so factories like his one – and the communities around them – can have more confidence in the future.
“For companies to invest in their yards, they need that long-term view of what’s coming down the road,” he says. “In our industry, we’re in boom just now but bust is probably only 18 months away.”
Buying a £500m ship from Rosyth instead of a French shipyard means then the Government is “getting some of that back in tax, national insurance and VAT, and money goes through our shops and petrol stations. That social payback needs to be looked at, because then the cost of building something in the UK becomes more affordable.”
He adds: “A lot of people would prefer that we didn’t need weapons, but that’s not the world we live in. We need to be able to defend not just our borders but our oil and gas sites, our undersea cables, the things that people don’t appreciate are under constant threat.”
Unite union officials Jed Ellis, left, and Steve McGuinness, right, hope Burnham delivers on his promise (Photos: Jed Ellis/Steve McGuinness)‘Labour’s last chance with working-class vote’
Jed Ellis agrees. Having served as an engineer at the Rolls Royce factory in Filton, near Bristol, which makes and maintains engines for Typhoon jets, he is now a union convenor for the plant’s workers.
Ellis was disappointed that the UK joined the US-led F-35 programme as a minor partner rather than developing its own naval fighter jets for its new aircraft carriers, saying the Westcountry was “quite lucky” to avoid major job losses as a result – but hopes more Typhoon orders and development of the Tempest will revitalise things.
Ellis welcomes Burnham’s comments but warns he must deliver, feeling “this is Labour’s last chance really with the working-class vote”, given the way Reform has tried appealing to people in communities that traditionally relied on manufacturing for employment.
Given Healey’s concerns about Rachael Reeves not releasing enough funding for defence, Ellis says that Burnham’s choice as the next Chancellor of the Exchequer will be crucial if towns and cities like Bristol can count on support from Downing Street.
Burnham needs to be careful that the Treasury “doesn’t put a noose around his neck before he even starts”, says Ellis.
@robhastings.bsky.social
Hence then, the article about the small towns pinning their hopes on burnham s defence pledge was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( The small towns pinning their hopes on Burnham’s defence pledge )
Also on site :
- Israel compartió con EE.UU. información de inteligencia sobre un complot iraní para asesinar a Trump, según fuentes
- Martha Stewart Says Reimagined Beauty Favorite, Originally Released 21 Years Ago, is ‘A Really Good Thing’
- 1990 Hit Single, Written in 15 Minutes on a Pizza Box, Ranked Among 'Greatest Hair Metal Anthems of All Time'