Labour would hand a £1.6billion shipbuilding contract to British firms in a boost for 6,000 jobs, we can reveal.
Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey will tomorrow confirm the party would give the deal for three Fleet Solid Support vessels to UK companies.
He will tell Labour ’s conference in Liverpool: “These ships will be built in Britain by British workers.”
The announcement piles pressure on the Government to guarantee the contract will not go to foreign-led bids.
Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, Mr Healey said: “We have seen a decade of failure on defence procurement where price rules everything else - competition is the cardinal interest from government ministers and they’re just as happy to see British taxpayers’ money buying equipment abroad as they are building defence equipment in Britain.
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“They are failing British taxpayers, they are failing British forces and I want to see British investment directed first to British jobs and British firms.
“As a demonstration of Labour’s determination to buy, make and sell more in Britain we will build these navy support ships in Britain, with British workers, in British shipyards.”
The 40,000-tonne Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels will resupply Royal Navy warships, including the £6.2bn Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, with food, ammunition and explosives.
Four consortia were each given £5million by the Ministry of Defence to develop their bids as the Government began the “competitive procurement phase”.
The shortlist includes Team UK, involving Babcock and BAE Systems; Mumbai-based Larsen & Toubro, which describes itself as “India's premier infrastructure developer”; Dutch firm Damen Group; and Team Resolute, led by Spanish shipbuilders Navantia.
Team UK estimates 2,000 British jobs will be safeguarded directly by the programme, with 1,500 more protected in the wider supply chain - and another 2,500 jobs indirectly benefiting in communities surrounding the yards.
Just across the Mersey from the Liverpool conference centre is Cammell Laird’s Birkenhead shipyard, where work is taking place on the 33,675-tonne ship Fort Victoria - another RFA supply ship.
The FSS are due to replace the Fort-class replenishment vessels from 2028.
The updated National Shipbuilding Strategy published in March sets out how at least 150 Navy warships and civilian vessels will be ordered over the next three decades.
But buried in the blueprint was the revelation the Fleet Solid Support vessels will be “integrated” in the UK - rather than guaranteeing they would be designed, manufactured and assembled by British staff.
Campaigners fear it will mean hundreds of millions of pounds worth of work going abroad.
Giving evidence to the Commons Defence Select Committee in July, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: “We have already insisted that the ship is constructed or integrated in the UK.”
Mr Healey told the Mirror the coronavirus crisis and Russia's invasion of Ukraine underlined the fragility of buying from abroad.
“The war in Ukraine but also the pandemic have demonstrated - not just within defence and security - the risk of global supply chains, the risk to any country of relying entirely for its most important critical capabilities on especially nations that aren’t reliable allies,” he said.
Pledging to order the ships from UK yards, Mr Healey added: “It’s a way, before an election, of raising the stakes for the Government, of trying to force Tory ministers to do the right thing.
“It’s a declaration of our determination in government to see defence investment directed first towards British jobs and British firms.”
Addressing delegates tomorrow, the frontbencher will say: “Labour backs British jobs and wants to grow our economy.
“We will ensure that British defence investment is directed first to British business, with a higher bar set for any decisions to buy abroad.
“But seven years on since these support ships were first announced, the Defence Secretary still won’t commit to building them fully in the UK.”
Campaigners hailed the vow.
Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions general secretary Ian Waddell said: "Labour's announcement will be very welcome across our shipbuilding communities and throughout the supply chain which extends into every part of the UK.
"British shipbuilding has a bright future and it will be impossible to create a high growth, high value regional economy without it.
"In these uncertain times it is vital that public procurement contracts are used to support our ability to design, manufacture and maintain our naval ships rather than support the workforce in a competitor nation".
GMB general secretary Gary Smith said: "This contract is critical to the future of the shipbuilding industry.
"Thousands of jobs have been lost in defence manufacturing as contracts worth billions go overseas; we need to end this scandal once and for all.
"Labour's commitment to build the Fleet Solid Support ships in our own yards will be welcomed in shipbuilding communities across the UK."
