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Defence in the World

I would take the view that break clauses are appropriate in all contracts above a certain level so that should the project go awry, should it explode in money terms, should it be seen to be inappropriate, should we discover that it was not going to be produced timeously or should the company involved collapse, there is a way of getting out of it. There must always be some way of getting out of it; that seems to me to be acceptable commercial practice. However, the Government are not saying that on day one of the next Government they will examine the break clauses, presumably with the intention of getting out of the contract. We need the Conservative party to make quite clear what they intend to do with the information that they have about the break clauses. If the hon. Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison) tells me in his response to the debate that the Opposition will drop altogether the suggestion that they will examine the break clauses on the aircraft carrier, I will go back and tell my constituents that the Conservatives are no longer imperilling their jobs by insisting on examining the break clauses on day one of a Conservative Government. That is what I look for. I also want the Government to give some indication of what they intend to do once the aircraft carriers are completed. That is where an indication of their plan for the Type 26 would fit in. I hope that they will be able to give us an announcement later this week that they intend to take the Type 26 to the next appropriate level. That would give an enormous boost to morale in my and other shipbuilding constituencies. It would show a clear contrast between those who are proceeding with the aircraft carrier and who are now proceeding with the Type 26, and those who are considering break clauses on day one of any future Government. I hope that that point has not been too subtle for people to pick up. It seems to me to be a particularly important one. Let me turn to a subject that has been touched on by a couple of hon. Members: the political ambush that was recently mounted by the allegedly neutral Cross Bencher, Lord Guthrie. I thought that it was particularly interesting that he was quoted in the paper as having said that the Prime Minister""Particularly in the early days when he was chancellor…showered it"—" money—"" on other departments but he didn't give much to defence."" Somebody who had the benefit of a private education—not Eton like the majority of the Opposition Front Benchers, but Harrow—is complaining about the Government spending money on education for those who have not had the privileges that he had; somebody who, in his 70s, is already older than the average life expectancy in Glasgow is complaining about the Government spending money on health for populations such as mine. He is a man who, days after the Tories said that they would consider the break clause on the carriers, rode in behind them to say that he would cancel them altogether. I think that the Conservatives, having spoken movingly in favour of Lord Guthrie and his right to intervene, ought to make it clear whether his notion of a Navy operating with motorised bathtubs is one that they share or whether they reject completely his proposal to cancel the aircraft carriers. I want briefly to make three other points, the first of which is to do with veterans. Last week, I had a ceremony in the Tradeston ex-servicemen's club, to which BAE Systems and others came, when we presented a number of veterans with medals. We have had several similar occasions where veterans from the merchant navy, the land army and the Bevin boys have all received medals. I wonder whether the Government would consider introducing a medal for those women who were conscripted and served with the Ministry of Munitions during the war rather than the land army. They served, and their contributions ought to be recognised in some way. I certainly want to express my gratitude to the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions, its Clydeside chair, Jim Moohan, and its Clydeside secretary, Kenny Jordan, as well as Harry Frew, the Scottish secretary of the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians. All came along to that event and discussed with me the threat posed to the Clydeside shipbuilding industry by the Conservatives' proposals on break clauses. My second point concerns the Falklands. We are often told that we have a special relationship with the United States. Is that special relationship that they say, "Jump," and we say, "How high?", or is it more reciprocal than that? How much support can we expect from them on the Falklands? The comments of American spokesmen have not been as helpful as they might have been, and I hope that the Government will point that out to them as quickly as possible. My final point is about co-operation with allies. I am strongly in favour of joint working with allies to try to cut procurement costs, but, as has been said, bilateral arrangements are by and large much more effective and efficient than the multilateral arrangements that are entered into simply on political grounds, which often result in time and cost escalations. I hope that the Minister will reject the clarion calls from the right hon. Member for Rotherham and Brussels, West (Mr. MacShane), whose view of almost every subject is that more Europeanisation is the answer. On the issue of defence procurement, it is clearly the wrong road.