Defence Minister Maria Eagle has committed to creating "good jobs in places like Merseyside" as part of the government's latest defence industrial strategy. Speaking aboard the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier, she 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 oversees defence procurement and industry, told : "Most of the jobs in defence industries are outside London and the south east and so we can see some regional and national prosperity being brought."
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She emphasised that "improving, strengthening and deepening defence industries" could "bring jobs – and good jobs – to places like Merseyside and all around the nations and regions."
The minister also expressed pride at the arrival of the ship in Liverpool, describing it as a "proud moment for the people of Merseyside". She praised the vessel, saying: "It's a magnificent piece of equipment and it's great to see it here in Liverpool."
As the aircraft carrier gears up for its 2025 deployment to the Indo-Pacific, to underscore the global security challenges the 海角视频 aims to address through such missions, and emphasized that it was "essential" for Britain to continue its support for Ukraine.
She stated: "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."
The minister confirmed the Labour government's commitment to allocating 2.5% of Britain's GDP to defence spending. "Despite this year's budget being tough," she said, "defence actually got an extra £2.9 billion to spend over the next year."
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She appeared unfazed by the prospect of Donald Trump's tenure in the White House, commenting: "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."
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