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Defence Industry (Lancashire)

The major sections are being made at Filton, as the hon. Gentleman says, but I can assure him that there are other subcontractors and suppliers in the north-west for components for that programme. I learnt that when I attended the function at Preston to which I referred earlier. In the few minutes remaining, I will deal with some of the extraordinary illusions that I am afraid both the Liberal and Tory parties appear to have on important defence matters. With regard to the Helix programme, which was mentioned by both spokesmen, I of course regret that we were unable to use the MRA4 as a platform for continuing signals intelligence capability. Frankly, however, after I wrote to BAE Systems on that matter, it made it clear that it could not deliver the capability in the time available, which was by 2016. Therefore, BAE Systems wrote itself out of consideration for that. Apart from everything else, it would certainly not have been a risk-free approach to delivering that capability, because it would have required BAE Systems to engineer a new mission system and an entirely new airframe.