13 October 2023 , 12:00
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Defence chiefs failed to guarantee British steel would be used to build vital new naval supply ships, we can reveal.
The Government signed a deal in November with the Team Resolute consortium, led by Spanish firm Navantia, for three Fleet Solid Support ships worth £1.6billion. But a freedom of information request by Community steelworkers’ union has found ministers did not insist that UK-manufactured steel must be used in their construction.
The revelation comes after the Conservatives last month agreed to pump £500million of taxpayers’ cash into Tata’s Port Talbot plant under a deal which will see 3,000 workers lose their jobs - triggering fury among unions.
The contract with Team Resolute previously triggered anger because much of the work will be carried out in Cadiz. Work will also take place at the historic Harland and Wolff yard in Belfast, where the Titanic was built. But a rival bid by the Team UK consortium would have meant much more work for British shipyards in building the 709ft, 40,000-tonne Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels, which will resupply Navy warships with food, ammunition and explosives.
Now, Community has forced the Ministry of Defence to admit that, when awarding the contract to the Madrid-based group, ministers did not guarantee that British steel must be used for the ships. Instead, the MoD admitted contractors were only “asked to give consideration” to buying British.
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“The contract contains an obligation on the prime contractor to give consideration, as far as possible, to contracting for the supply of British steel,” said the response. “Team Resolute has publicly committed to procuring UK steel wherever it is practicable to do so.” It stressed that “responsibility for sourcing steel for the FSS ships will rest with the prime contractor, who will make their steel requirements known to the UK steel industry and procure the steel in accordance with Cabinet Office guidelines”.
Community’s assistant general secretary Alasdair McDiarmid said: “Our Royal Navy and the ships in them are crucial to our national security. It’s therefore important that the Government ensures that we have a domestic steel industry to supply the materials needed to build these ships whenever we need them. Ignoring the UK’s long-term security needs for short-term savings is a dangerous game for the Government to play.
“Labour has already committed to making Royal Navy ships out of more UK steel. We need to see a similar commitment from the Government, with the Ministry of Defence and wider Government procurement contracts tightened up to ensure UK steel is used.”
Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey said it was “another example of the Government failing to ensure the use of British steel in shipbuilding”. He added: “The Type 31 frigate and Fleet Solid Support Ship programmes highlight the Conservatives' failure to recognise the strategic value of British steel.”
Latest estimates suggest the ships will each require 17,000 tonnes of “structural steel” - potentially providing a bonanza for foreign steel mills. Work on the Fleet Solid Support ships is expected to begin in 2025 . It will be another six years before the first boat is in the water and 2032 before all three are to “in operational service by”.
The Mirror has been campaigning to Save Our Steel since 2015.
Shameful history of snubbing UK steel producers for shipbuilding deals
In 2017, we told how the Tories were betraying British workers by sourcing 65% of the steel for eight, Type 26, City-class frigates from Sweden.
A year earlier, we revealed how four Royal Fleet Auxiliary Tide-class tankers were being built with 44,000 tonnes of South Korean steel.
During the Tories’ 2016 party conference, the Mirror exposed how French steel was ordered for Britain's new Dreadnought fleet of nuclear-armed submarines.
Swedish steel was also used for three Navy offshore patrol vessels, as we reported in 2015.
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