Defence Manufacturing Jobs

3. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support jobs in the defence manufacturing sector in Scotland.

9. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support jobs in the defence manufacturing sector in Scotland.

Scotland is at the heart of keeping the UK secure at home and strong abroad. As has been referenced already, just last week I visited Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, working to strengthen our defence partnerships and increase export opportunities for the Scottish defence industry. That defence dividend has already delivered record orders worth £10 billion for the Clyde shipyards, new investments of £340 million in Rosyth and £250 million in Faslane, and a contract of £453 million for Leonardo in Edinburgh.

This Government’s increase in defence spending is delivering £2 billion a year for Scotland as well as 12,000 jobs. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the greatest threat to my constituents is an SNP Government who are playing student politics with defence and will not use their existing powers to back Scottish industry, young people and our national security?

Not for the first time, I find myself in agreement with my hon. Friend. The UK Labour Government have committed to the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the cold war, totalling £270 billion in this Parliament alone. In contrast, the SNP-led Scottish Government’s position on public funding for defence is risking jobs, skills and investment in Scotland. Despite record funding provided by the UK Government, they are weak on defence and dismal on further education. Scotland deserves better than a third decade of a failed SNP Government.

Labour’s defence industrial strategy will strengthen our security across the whole United Kingdom and deliver an unprecedented growth deal for Scotland that includes £250 million of UK-wide investment and £182 million for skills. For me, this is personal. My grandfather worked in the Glasgow shipyards, part of a proud tradition that has served the whole UK. Does my right hon. Friend agree that a strong Scottish defence sector delivered by a UK Labour Government strengthens all of us?

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. My own grandfather worked as an engineer in Glasgow, so I appreciate the proud heritage of which he speaks. The Government’s defence industrial strategy will deliver a record boost for Scotland’s economy, creating highly skilled jobs for years to come. Alas, when the SNP-led Scottish Government stepped back, it took the UK Labour Government to step in and give young people the welding skills that they needed. As we mark the fourth anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the security challenges facing NATO are clear for almost all of us to see, yet the Scottish Government remain committed to unilateral nuclear disarmament.

Many of my constituents work in the Leonardo factory, which the Secretary of State mentioned. They contribute hugely to this economy, but they are concerned about the contradiction between what the UK Government say and what the Scottish Government say about defence spending. Can he detail exactly how the Government will support them going forward?

I had the chance to visit the Leonardo facility with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence in recent weeks and saw for myself the transformation it had witnessed since it was originally Ferranti, with the strong support of the UK Government behind it. The hon. Member raises a really important question. The defence prime companies in Scotland cannot get Scottish Government civil servants even to explain the policy that the First Minister announced last September. That is imperilling investment, apprenticeships and jobs in Scotland. Scotland deserves better.

Does the Secretary of State agree that increased defence orders in Scotland have the potential to strengthen the defence industry and the industrial base across the whole of the United Kingdom, and will he make an assessment of the opportunities that that presents, in particular for Northern Ireland companies?

I find myself in agreement with the hon. Gentleman. With that biggest sustained increase in defence expenditure since the cold war—not simply in Scotland, where defence supports about 12,000 Scottish jobs, but in Northern Ireland, Wales and England—there are real opportunities for a defence dividend. That is why the defence industrial strategy is UK-wide and why, notwithstanding the Scottish Government’s weakness on defence and economic support, we remain committed to that strategy.