---

Defence Procurement

If I know anything about academics, it is that we never get a consensus from any of them, and I have no idea about the assumptions on which that professor drew in making that statement. The right hon. Gentleman also raised the issue of the FRES programme, so let me take the opportunity to deal with it. The FRES utility vehicle is not dead; we will make progress this year in going forward with this project, which is essential for the Army over the long term. Indeed, I hope that we will have a FRES utility vehicle in-service within a decade. We will make more progress this year, as I say, and we will make further announcements in due course. I couple the FRES reconnaissance vehicle with the Warrior upgrade, which has not been mentioned here, but there are so many common elements, particularly the cannon, that it is important to look at the two things together. I am extremely focused on this; I meet the teams regularly every month or six weeks. I hope that we will be able to go out to competition for it in a few months’ time. We really are making as fast progress as we possibly can, so I hope that relieves the anxieties—the understandable anxieties—of the right hon. Gentleman. My hon. Friend the Member for Chorley (Mr. Hoyle) raised with me, as he often has, the issue of the cut and sew contract and the uniforms, part of which were made in China. I had not before heard the complaints that my hon. Friend brought to the House about shortcomings in the quality of the product—the too high infrared signature and so forth. I will ask about that. My hon. Friend knows that a new contract will be let later this year and I will certainly do my best—it is my responsibility—to make sure that it is negotiated and placed in the fairest possible way. His representations, which are always very powerful, will very much be taken into account; I give him that undertaking. He raised a number of other issues and I am glad to say that he supports the tranche 3 Typhoon. On Woodford, the future of the Nimrod programme and where we go with the MRA4 project, which my hon. Friend the Member for Chorley also raised, I said that I would not make any decision until I visited Woodford, which I believe I am doing on Tuesday of next week. I look forward to that visit, but I do not want to hold out any unreasonable expectations. I have said that very clearly to my hon. Friend and his colleagues who come to see me and to the trade unions, as there are very considerable difficulties. So far as Woodford is concerned, it is not the Government’s decision, but it is quite clear that BAE Systems does not actually expect the plant to remain open very long anyway because it does not have a successor in the plant for the Nimrod programme. It thus becomes a question, sadly, of redeploying the extremely skilled, effective and valuable work force—in 2012, 2013 or 2014—so it would be quite dishonest to hold out a prospect for their long-term future on that site when the firm itself appears to have taken that decision. I move on to deal with the hon. Member for Mid-Sussex (Mr. Soames), whose contributions to these debates are always greatly valued. I must say that his is the most memorable contribution to the debate and it will be referred to in the months to come. Indeed, it will play a part in the election campaign, because he made it quite clear that he does not believe that we should go ahead with the programme for the 65,000-tonnes carriers. That is a pretty dramatic statement to make, but it was even more dramatic in so far as it was supported by quite a number of the hon. Gentleman’s colleagues: the hon. Members for Bournemouth, East (Mr. Ellwood) and for Congleton (Ann Winterton), as well as, slightly more subtly, the hon. Member for North Essex (Mr. Jenkin). It is quite clear to me that there is a hidden agenda emerging in the Tory party to cancel those carriers. That is a dramatic fact on which the people of this country will need to focus. I can see a clear issue between us at the general election, directly on defence procurement on that particular subject.