{"id":18058,"date":"2019-05-16T16:49:15","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T15:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=18058"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:56:29","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:56:29","slug":"defence-reps-parliament-tempest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=18058","title":{"rendered":"Support UK defence"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite has hailed the support the union received at a lobby of Parliament earlier this week (May 13), where Unite reps pressed the case for the continued funding of Tempest, the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s replacement of the Typhoon fighter jet.<\/p>\n

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Plans to develop the next generation of fighter aircraft and \u00c2\u01412bn of funding were signed off in July last year leading to the creation of 400 jobs, with a further 350 working on the project by the end of 2019.<\/p>\n

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A cross-party group of MPs attended the lobby, including shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith, trade secretary Liam Fox, and Admiral Lord West, among other key shadow and government ministers.<\/p>\n

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Unite reps from BAE Systems, Leonardo, MBDA and Rolls Royce travelled to London to urge the new defence secretary Penny Mourdant to continue funding for Tempest by ensuring the 10 year defence equipment plan is fully funded in the comprehensive spending review.<\/p>\n

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Unite national officer Rhys McCarthy praised Unite reps, who he said \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdemonstrated their superior lobbying skills\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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McCarthy explained that current funding for Tempest is reviewed on a yearly basis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he said it was absolutely vital that both defence firms and their workers, Unite members, are given greater certainty.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re asking for commitments on a longer time scale of three to five years,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he noted.<\/p>\n

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McCarthy also called on the government to commit to UK defence.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBy 2020 nearly 25 pence in every pound of UK defence spending will be with US companies,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is vital not just for the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sovereign defence capability, but for jobs and skills throughout the manufacturing supply chain that the design and build of projects like Tempest is done here in the UK,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite will continue to press the government to ensure its commitment to the long term funding of Tempest is not watered down under the new defence secretary,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe will also be calling on MPs to back UK defence jobs by urging the government to pursue procurement policies which favour UK prosperity through onshore design and build rather than buying off the shelf from abroad on short-term economic grounds.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite has hailed the support the union received at a lobby of Parliament earlier this week (May 13), where Unite reps pressed the case for the continued funding of Tempest, the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s replacement of the Typhoon fighter jet.   Plans to develop the next generation of fighter aircraft and \u00c2\u01412bn of funding were signed off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[484,1172],"wps_subtitle":"Unite defence reps lobby Parliament over Tempest funding","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18058"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25282,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18058\/revisions\/25282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}