Defence Industry and Shipbuilding

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 4:34 pm on 11 July 2018.

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Photo of Nia Griffith Nia Griffith Shadow Secretary of State for Defence 4:34, 11 July 2018

The Minister needs to take into consideration the fact that something like 36% of that spend would immediately come back to the Treasury in taxation. There would also be a knock-on effect for all the small businesses that would benefit from that money being spent out into the local economy. We would also have to take into account the cost of social security if those people were unemployed, as well as the disastrous cost of losing our shipbuilding industry altogether. Does he recognise that if we do not invest now to create a drum beat of orders, we could see the shipbuilding industry going the same way that the Tories let the coalmining industry go?