News / Keir Starmer
Defence spending ‘needs to be translated into well-paid jobs’ says Starmer on visit to Bristol
The prime minister has visited apprentices and recent graduates at Rolls-Royce.
The brief trip to the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Filton saw Keir Starmer meet the new workforce and extend his thanks for their contribution in “securing Britain’s future”.
Starmer spoke at great length with the apprentices and graduates on Thursday afternoon, offering many words of encouragement.
is needed now More than ever
Through the Plan for Change, the Labour government is delivering the biggest sustained increase in defence spending in more than 50 years, with a target of 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027.
As part of that plan, the government is pushing on further investment to delivers the skills, jobs and growth that the country needs.
The South West region is home to the UK’s largest aerospace cluster featuring an extensive range of industries and defence companies including Airbus, BAE Systems and Babcock.
Babcock recently opened the new collaborative Submarine Availability Support Hub in Bristol.
Prime minister Keir Starmer was taken briefly around Rolls-Royce in Filton to look at their work – photo: Hannah Massoudi
Starmer said: “I have been talking to the apprentices, mainly to say thank you to them, because I don’t think defence and security has been as important as it is now.
“We’re stepping up and putting more money into defence. That means more well-paid jobs in places like Rolls-Royce.
“I’ve just been on a carrier strike out at sea and the capability going on there much of that comes from places like this.
“So I want to see that translated into well-paid jobs across the United Kingdom, but including in the South West.”
While the government is putting an emphasis on getting people into high-skilled jobs, retention – due to a multitude of issues including pay parity – has been recognised by the defence industry.
A report from Guidant Global stated that 83 per cent of defence employers are concerned that a shortage of STEM talent will mean the UK’s defence capabilities will fall behind other countries.
A joint MOD-industry working group has been established to assess current skills gaps, particularly in STEM fields.
Starmer was enthusiastic about tackling the issue: “What we’re doing on defence spending needs to be translated into well paid jobs and it will be.
“I think this is a turning point in the sense that there’s more money going into defence spending, which means there’ll be more well paid jobs in places like this and the supply chains that come into them.
“My message to the workforce here is thank you for what you are doing, we’re gonna need more of it, in the specialised sectors, but also in small and medium-sized enterprises that are in the supply chains.”
The prime minister, who is hosting an energy security summit in London on Thursday afternoon, said that he believed the UK could get “a better and closer relationship” with the EU, particularly on defence and security, as well as trade and the economy.
Main photo: Hannah Massoudi
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
