Dinenage presses Prime Minister over Portsmouth’s shipbuilding future
CAROLINE Dinenage today pressed Prime Minister David Cameron to support shipbuilding in Portsmouth amid concerns about BAE Systems pulling out of the city.
The Gosport MP told Prime Minister’s Questions: ‘The potential loss of shipbuilding jobs in Portsmouth is a direct threat not only to the livelihood of 1,500 BAE workers, but a further 32,000 supply-chain jobs across the region and £28 million in income for my Gosport constituents alone.
‘Will the Prime Minister commit to doing all he can to protect jobs at this site which represents over 500 years of British shipbuilding?’
The question follows intense speculation about the security of the jobs at Portsmouth shipyard, after BAE launched a review into all its UK shipbuilding operations last month.
In response, Mr Cameron said: ‘She (Ms Dinenage) is right to speak up for Portsmouth. She is right to speak up for her constituency.
‘BAE Systems has not approached the government with any proposals...As far as I’m aware no decisions have been taken by the company.’
The Prime Minister said the government was committed to British shipbuilding, adding: ‘We are building the new frigates, we are building the Global Combat Ships, we are building new hunter-killer submarines, we are replacing Trident and we are building two new aircraft carriers. That’s a major punch for the Royal Navy that I strongly support.’
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Weather for Portsmouth
Friday 25 May 2012
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Temperature: 13 C to 25 C
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Comments
There are 5 comments to this article
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Yocal
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 08:54 PMWe also need renewable energy. In fact the Navy is probably more educated on the subject of global warming than Dinenage is. But the point of my comment is that if Dinenage is worried about jobs in Portsmouth, she should also be worried about jobs elsewhere in the UK. Plus of course ultimately if she signs letters that are against wind turbines, she is also signing a letter in support of flooding Portsmouth and Gosport.
veiwsmatter
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 11:02 PMWell for a start as we need a navy if BAE in Portsmouth move out the navy will slowly died and Portsmouth loses a major asset
Yocal
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 06:50 PMMaybe Dinenage would also like to campaign for jobs in the growing wind turbine industry in the UK. Many shipbuilding facilities and skills are also ideal for building wind turbines. Maybe Vestas, Samsung, Siemens, Hitachi , Clipper, American Superconductor and other cutting edge wind turbine companies would like to replace BAE. Oh, but no, she instead campaigns against wind turbines.Double standards I believe. Campaign to ruin jobs elsewhere, but campaign for jobs locally that increase carbon emissions.
PalaceJack
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 02:37 PMAnd why are we paying 20 grand of tax payers money to a firm to investigtaie this, when dinnage is doing her job at parliament !
Labour Insider
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 07:46 PMI am now very confused and extremely concerned about the future of shipbuilding in Portsmouth. A couple of weeks ago, when the story broke, Ms Dinenage told workers not to worry because she had been given assurances that there was work up until 2018. Now she's telling the Prime Minister there is a direct threat! This really is hapless stuff, not least when the governement have made it clear that they will not intervene to prevent BAE closing the Portsmouth site.
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