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Modernising Logistics Provision

I do recognise that there is a huge loss. It does not come easy to me, or any Defence or Labour Minister, to make such announcements. I do not feel a sense of betrayal. I have tried to set out the logic of what we are doing: why it is inevitable, why it is good for defence and why we believe that it best configures that aspect of logistic support for the RAF. My hon. Friend made a particular point about apprenticeships. I have said elsewhere that bits of British industry would not exist without MOD investment, and I sometimes question what the rest of British industry is doing about apprenticeships in the aerospace sector. We are mindful of the issue, however, and will work with the Welsh Assembly to try to find a way of ensuring that the apprenticeship stream is maintained. It may not be wholly to do with the MOD, but we realise that it is vital. It is not simply for the MOD to provide aerospace apprenticeships; the rest of the industry has something to contribute as well.