Ben Wallace: Royal Yacht Britannia Successor Is 'Affordable'

The Defence Secretary has defended the decision to fund the building of a successor for the Royal Yacht Britannia as "affordable" in the face of growing criticism and questions from MPs.

The proposed national flagship could cost the Ministry of Defence (MOD) £200m according to reports, with Downing Street confirming the ship will be used for trade, rather than defence purposes.

MPs have questioned the wisdom of the decision, especially at the current time, given the £17bn equipment budget black hole already facing the MOD.

However, Ben Wallace has argued instead that the costs were "affordable" and that the MOD was best placed to fund the project given its experience in shipbuilding.

While offering evidence to the Commons Defence Committee, Mr Wallace said the decision was a "perfectly legitimate" choice.

"Why is the MOD leading on it? Because we build ships, lots of ships, and I'm sure as much as I'm very fond of the Cabinet Office, for example, I'm not sure they've ever built a ship," he said.

"I think it is perfectly legitimate that we put it in this department and then we can use our knowledge and, indeed, our relationship with industry to make sure we get value for money and it produces what we want – I think that's the best way to go about it."

It was revealed in May that the Royal Yacht Britannia successor was to be crewed by Royal Navy personnel and that construction of the vessel is expected to begin in 2022.

Asked whether the MOD should be paying for the vessel given its "stretched budget", the Cabinet minister compared the build to other Government projects.

"The estimated costs are less than 0.1% of the defence budget, of the £13bn we're going to spend over the next 10 years on the shipbuilding pipeline – we think it is affordable."

Continuing his reasoning, Mr Wallace also stressed the potential for the ship to be used for Royal Navy training and to reduce costs for other Whitehall departments.

He added: "I'm absolutely happy to look at your suggestion on whether we have a different design Type 32 which can be tasked.

"You are on the right track insofar as all of these ships are platforms which should be flexible – we should be designing in flexibility."

The comments from the Defence Secretary come after defence minister Baroness Goldie recently told peers the national flagship would have "an important national security and foreign policy function".

The boat will be the first national flagship since Britannia, but the new vessel will be a ship rather than a luxury yacht and is part of plans to boost the Prime Minister's post-Brexit vision of the UK as a global trading nation.

The vessel will be used to host trade fairs, ministerial summits and diplomatic talks.

Cover image: Alamy.