The Garston MP Maria Eagle spoke to the ECHO aboard the HMS Prince of Wales
Defence Minister Maria Eagle has pledged to bring “good jobs to places like Merseyside” as part of the government’s new defence industrial strategy. Speaking to the ECHO aboard the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier, the Garston MP said: “One of the things we want to focus on is building what we can in Britain – so focusing our investment in firms that build kit in Britain.
“That will have the benefit of boosting our economy in this region and in other regions where the defence industry can be stronger as a result.” Ms Eagle, who is the minister responsible for defence procurement and industry, continued: “Most of the jobs in defence industries are outside London and the southeast and so we can see some regional and national prosperity being brought.”
She said “improving, strengthening and deepening defence industries” can “bring jobs – and good jobs – to places like Merseyside and all around the nations and regions.”
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The minister said the arrival of the ship in Liverpool this week was a “proud moment for the people of Merseyside”. She added: “It’s a magnificent piece of equipment and it’s great to see it here in Liverpool.”
The aircraft carrier is preparing for its deployment to the Indo-Pacific in 2025, and Ms Eagle took the opportunity to highlight the global security threats the UK is trying to tackle through such deployments.
She said: “There’s instability in the Middle East, there’s threats in the Indo-Pacific and we need to be able to make sure that our defence capability can ensure our contribution to NATO deals with those threats rather than threats we’ve had in the past. In the last few years we’ve seen an increasing and changing threat picture which the defence of the nation has to respond to.”
She told us it was “essential” for Britain to continue its support for Ukraine. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the UK has given £12.8 billion to Ukraine, including £7.8 billion in military support.
Ms Eagle said: “We have to make sure we continue to support Ukraine because they really are at the front line of dealing with the threats that Europe is facing from Russia. We already know that Putin has had a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and seeks to wipe it off the map and there’s no indication that he will stop at Ukraine if he succeeds.
“That’s one of the reasons why the current government and the previous government have been very focused on supporting Ukraine to keep their independence and to fight off the threat of Putin.”
The minister said the Labour government is committed to spending 2.5% percent of Britain’s GDP on defence. “Despite this year’s budget being tough,” she said, “defence actually got an extra £2.9 billion to spend over the next year.”
She is relaxed about the impeding arrival of Donald Trump in the White House. She said: “We have to make sure that whatever the US policy is on anything – that we’re able to deal with it. We’re traditionally a very close ally of the US, there’s no reason why that should change and obviously the issue with Trump is nobody quite knows what he’s going to do, but we’re very strong allies.”