Early day motion tabled by primary sponsor Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party), on Tuesday, 11 May 2004, in the House of Commons. It is signed by 8 members in total.

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GOVERNMENT DECISION-MAKING OVER GOVAN SHIPYARD AND ARTICLE BY MR MARTIN SIXSMITH

That this House notes the article by Mr Martin Sixsmith in the Sunday Times of 9th May, which states that, because of the electoral threat facing New Labour from the Scottish National Party in the run-up to the 1999 Scottish Parliament election, the Prime Minister reversed the Government's competition policy and allowed GEC to merge its defence arm with its main rival, BAE, effectively creating a monopoly supplier, in return for GEC agreeing to buy the threatened Govan shipyard; calls on the Prime Minister to confirm or deny this story; believes that this illustrates that only when Scotland backs the SNP is the Government in London forced into defending Scottish interests out of electoral fear; and further believes that this lesson will not be lost on the shipyard workers, or on Scotland as a whole, as the elections to the European Parliament approach.

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Secondary information

Type

Early day motion

Reference

1154 

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Competition Elections Glasgow Scottish Parliament Shipbuilding BAE Systems GEC Marconi

Link

View this Early day motion on www.parliament.uk