Wallace sinks Johnson’s plan for £250m Britannia replacement
‘This is a short-sighted step given the support from UK individuals and businesses who shared the vision’
PLANS for a £250 million national flagship were scrapped yesterday despite claims that it would have “returned many multiples of her build cost to the UK economy over many decades”.
Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said that he was cancelling the programme – seen as a replacement for the royal yacht Britannia – and was investing the money saved to protect Britain’s undersea internet cables.
The decision was the first major cut in spending before the Autumn Statement which is to remove tens of billions from departmental budgets next week.
Mr Wallace told MPS: “I am directing the termination of the national flagship competition with immediate effect to bring forward the first MROS ship in its place.” The multi-role ocean surveillance ship, which will protect Britain’s seabed internet cables, is due to start work next year.
A source close to the national flagship project – which had been championed by Boris Johnson, the former prime minister – said the scheme could not be justified given the stress on the defence budget from the war in Ukraine.
“This is sad news but it was inevitable given the war in Ukraine,” they said. “The business case was there but like so many good projects it cannot be progressed at this time.”
John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, told the Commons that he welcomed the news that a “previous prime minister’s vanity project will be scrapped and the switch [in] spending to purposes that will help defend the country has been made”.
However, Craig Mackinlay, a Conservative MP who had led a campaign for the ship, said: “I’m hugely disappointed that the plans for a new national flagship have been shelved.
“A global Britain should have such an asset to serve the nation, particularly to unlock trade deals.
“HMY Britannia proved the link between global soft power and advantageous trade deals.
“This is a short-sighted step, especially given the support from UK individuals and businesses who shared the vision.”
The new flagship had been slated to launch “in the last quarter of 2024”, entering service in late 2025. It would have dwarfed the Royal Yacht Britannia in both bulk and manpower, with a minimum weight of 11,000 tons and requiring just 70 crew.
Consortiums led by two British companies, Harland & Wolff and Houlder Ltd, had been competing to design the ship from a longlist of 19 schemes.
John Wood, chief executive of Harland & Wolff, said: “We are certain that had the national flagship gone ahead, the vessel would have returned many multiples of her build cost to the UK economy over many decades, acting as an international demonstration of the creativity and engineering talent the UK has to offer.”
Mr Wood added that “given the global trade that can be driven to the UK by a vessel like this we do expect that a vessel of this type – either government or privately owned – will come back to the table in the future and we remain ready to assist at that time”.
Mr Wallace had been an enthusiastic supporter of the project, telling The Daily Telegraph in July last year: “It is anything but a vanity project. All the doomsters slagging it off, I bet they are exactly the same people that slagged off the Olympics in 2012.”