It has been reported that Gordon brown is considering dumping Agusta Westland as provider of a new medium-lift helicopter and substituting Chinooks. However, were the Prime Minister to award this £1bn project away from Yeovil, to the US company Boeing, it would still be years before helicopters started to come into service and would represent a ’seismic shift’ in helicopter procurement where contracts were awarded without any competition.
This news comes on the day that yet more bodies are flown home from Afghanistan and relatives of the dead start to raise again the lack of helicopters in the Afghan theatre of war.
Kevin Davis, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Yeovil, attacked the Prime Minister: “I am afraid that on the day that yet more bodies are flown home from Afghanistan, and yet more accusations fly from relatives that Brown has let down our armed forces through the lack of helicopters, it beggars belief that for short-term news management the Prime Minister appears to be willing to spend £1bn on US helicopters that may well arrive too late for use in the Afghan theatre. Not only is he now responsible for under resourcing our troops but he is also guilty of taking jobs and livelihoods away from Yeovil workers who could have delivered Merlins to replace the exhausted Puma’s and Sea King’s.”
Kevin continued: “These helicopters should have been ordered long before now but it was Gordon Brown, as Chancellor, who refused to back the armed forces. I will always fight for Yeovil to secure orders for Westland workers and all I ask is that Agusta Westland get a level playing field in which to bid for these orders rather than Gordon Brown issuing Prime Ministerial edicts to buy American.”
Note to Editors
This
issue has been extensively reported in the Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a803f062-cd99-11de-8162-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
Ends
11th November 2009
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