A £250 million plan to exchange the Queen’s Royal Yacht Britannia has been scrapped by Rishi Sunak.
Boris Johnson needed a successor to the previous pleasure vessel, which served Her Majesty till 1997 and is now a vacationer attraction in Edinburgh, however the brand new prime minister has different concepts.
The plans confronted heavy criticism from MPs final yr and Mr Sunak has formally sunk them as Whitehall braces for cuts in Jeremy Hunt’s autumn assertion on November 17.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace made the announcement as we speak, saying he was prioritising a brand new surveillance ship (MROSS) as an alternative of a nationwide flagship.
‘Within the face of the Russian unlawful and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and Putin’s reckless disregard of worldwide preparations designed to maintain world order, it's proper that we prioritise delivering capabilities which safeguard our nationwide infrastructure,’ he mentioned.
That meant he had ‘additionally directed the termination of the nationwide flagship competitors with fast impact to carry ahead the primary MROSS ship as a replacement’.
Mr Wallace instructed MPs the MROSS would ‘defend delicate defence infrastructure and civil infrastructure’ and ‘enhance our potential to detect threats to the seabed and cables’.
Shadow defence secretary John Healey welcomed the information that the ‘earlier prime minister’s vainness challenge’ has been scrapped and the spending switched to ‘functions that can assist defend the nation’.
The vessel had been anticipated to take to the water by 2025, earlier than touring the world as a ‘floating embassy’.
However the Telegraph revealed two non-public consortia bidding for the work had been instructed the challenge is being axed.
The Commons Defence Committee warned in 2021 there was ‘no proof of the benefit to the Royal Navy of buying the nationwide flagship’.
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