Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt dropped the biggest hint yet that a UK shipyard will win a £1billion deal for new Royal Navy support ships.
Unions welcomed the signal, which fuelled hopes the Government will back British workers by awarding the bumper contract to a UK consortium.
Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, the Cabinet Minister said: “It’s long order books and steady drum beats in our yards that strengthen our supply chain and bring down the overall cost of procurement.
“What’s needed is a closer partnership with industry that gives them the confidence to invest and build, and us the confidence that we can and we must buy British.”
The Ministry of Defence is under pressure to pledge to build two, possibly three, Fleet Solid Support ships in Britain.
The vital vessels will resupply the Fleet, including the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, with ammunition, explosives and food.
Ms Mordaunt, a Royal Navy reservist who spoke about watching the Falklands war naval task force leave Portsmouth when she was nine-years-old, dubbed them “our logistic backbone”.
The deal has been put out to international tender and five firms, including one UK consortium, are in the running.
A decision is due next year and unions have launched the Keep Britain Afloat campaign to demand the contract stays in Britain.
Asked if she could commit to handing the lucrative deal to a British yard, Ms Mordaunt told the Mirror: “I won’t commit to that today, but I hope I have made it crystal clear that not only do I think we can be competitive in shipbuilding if we get this partnership with industry right, but I also think it’s necessary for us to be able to deliver the Fleet that we want in the future.”
Unions welcomed the hint.
Prospect deputy general secretary Garry Graham said: “The new Defence Secretary is completely correct that the Government should be ‘buying British’ and that short-term political decisions are damaging our industry.
“The new direction she is charting for the MoD will be encouraging for shipyard workers across the country who have been badly let down by the Government over previous years. However, warm words do not keep people in work.
“If the Secretary of State is serious about investing in Britain then she must urgently commit to building new naval support ships in Britain and securing jobs and skills for the future.”
Ms Mordaunt, tipped to join the Tory leadership battle to succeed Theresa May , also pledged to fight the Treasury for extra cash for the Armed Forces.
She also took a swipe at Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who used a speech this week to call for a lift in defence spending above the NATO minimum of 2% of GDP.
“Rather than saying, ‘I’m going to spend 3%’, ‘I’m going to spend 4%”, ‘someone over there wants us to spend 5%’, we have to look at what it is we need to do,” she said.
“We have to look at what the capability is and the task we are asking our services to perform.”
Ms Mordaunt also revealed she feared the Government was in danger of repeating the mistakes of the Iraq Historic Allegations Team with veterans of the Troubles.
She wants to extend protection to troops from repeated investigations into historical claims to cover veterans of Northern Ireland.
“I do think it should cover Northern Ireland,” she said.
“The problem is that we have failed on the whole ‘lawfare’ issue because we have been waiting for other things to happen. This is not going to be resolved overnight.”
