Grahame Morris MP is supporting a new shipbuilding campaign by the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU), to help ‘Keep Britain Afloat’.

Britain’s shipbuilding industry is facing a crisis. Without Government action, over 40,000 jobs will be lost in the next two years from British shipyards. The campaign aims to save these jobs and the communities they support.

The campaign also has the backing of Unite the Union.

There is concern over the Government’s lack of commitment to the Fleet Solid Ship (FSS) Support Programme.

British shipbuilders, working together in every shipyard in the country, have completed work on two of the most advanced aircraft carriers in the world.

As the project comes to an end, there will be a two-year gap before the next naval vessels are to be built. This will leave 40,000 jobs under threat.

FSS will pump £1.3bn into regional economies that rely on shipbuilding, and level up the British economy. It will directly support 20,000 jobs in shipyards, and a further 20,000 throughout its supply chain.

Before Brexit, the Government said that EU rules meant it had to have an international competition to build these ships. However, now that we have left the EU, the Government wants to put £1.5 billion worth of contracts, to build the FFS supply ships needed to keep the aircraft carriers at sea, out to international competition.

These ships should be built at British shipyards with the budget pumped into our regional economies to support our communities, who will pay tax and spend money in their local shops, to keep the national economy going.

Grahame Morris MP said, “The Keep Britain Afloat campaign has my full support. It is vital that the Government does not outsource the contracts for the FFS supply ships to the international market. This will have a devastating impact on the shipbuilding industry in Britain. It will see jobs and skill lost that will not return, and the North East will be particularly affected.”