Yahoo News Defence spending will be transformative for Devonport Dockyard
Last week marked a watershed moment for defence as the UK Government committed to the biggest uplift in defence spending for a generation, writes Johnny Mercer, Conservative MP for Plymouth Moor View.
A commitment to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 equates to a £75 billion defence spending boost. At home, it will be transformative for our rebounding dockyard in Plymouth. Abroad, it will set the benchmark for our allies to follow and shore up the UK’s position as the pre-eminent defence power in Europe.
It reflects a changing geopolitical context in which revisionist, authoritarian countries, such as China, Russia and Iran, seek to tear up the rulebook, destabilise their neighbours and reshape the world in their image. As history would have it, Plymouth is well equipped and will be at the centre of this fight for our nation’s future national security and prosperity.
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Devonport Dockyard now has a programme of work providing skilled employment on a scale not seen for a generation. Investment in equipment, munitions and technology will boost our troops at the Citadel, Stonehouse and Devonport.
With that said, I have made it clear to both the Prime Minister, the Defence Secretary and the Chief of the General Staff last week that it is not credible to spend all this money and allow service children to get ill in accommodation that is not fit for purpose.
It is not credible to spend all this new money on equipment that does not get the basics right and sees families living in service accommodation without heating or hot water for months. I will be monitoring the situation in Plymouth closely.
In all this, we have heard nothing from Labour – not even a welcome of it. Their supposed care for defence is shallow and one that will be dropped after polling day. A few years ago, they tried to give the UK a Prime Minister who wanted to leave NATO, bin the nuclear deterrent and turn the army into a peace corps.
Locally, they ran our dockyard into the ground, forcing it into special measures in 2013. It is an uncomfortable truth which Plymouth Labour would rather you forgot. Now, they pretend to support our armed forces. People in Plymouth are not so easily misled. Despite their best efforts, the military remains the backbone of Plymouth.
From Sir Francis Drake to the Plymouth Blitz, Plymouth Hoe’s war memorials tell of a city which has stood up and been counted when its nation has called. It is a history which we can all be proud of. Our city’s contribution has not diminished under my watch, like my predecessors; on the contrary, it has flourished and is stronger than it has been in a generation.
Whether it’s my fight to get the Type 26 frigates port based in Plymouth; Babcock’s £750m contract to deliver the UK’s future submarine capability or the Government’s £2bn overhaul of facilities, Devonport Dockyard is once again on the up. With the £75bn defence spending boost, its future is brighter still.
