Sturgeon joins calls to support aerospace

Nicola Sturgeon has joined forces with the First Ministers of Wales and Northern Ireland to demand “urgent intervention” from the UK government to help the struggling aerospace sector.

The Scottish First Minister, her Welsh counterpart Mark Drakeford and both Arlene Foster and Michelle O’neill from Northern Ireland have written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The letter urges him to set up a specialist task force to help the industry, which has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

The joint push comes as the leaders of the Unite trade union claimed tens of t housands of j obs i n the sector and associated industries were on the “brink of being lost forever”.

But the creation of an aerospace task force “would be a positive signal to the sector”, the four political leaders told Mr Johnson.

Such a move would show “a l l o u r g o v e r n me n t s r e ma i n c o mmi t t e d t o working together in order to preserve this sector that is hugely important to the whole of the UK”, they added.

They stressed the need to act quickly.

The task force they are proposing would include “active participation” from the governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as unions and companies.