New UK flagship: best of British or Boris Johnson vanity project?
- Britain to build £200 million flagship to promote its business and trade interests around the world
- Queen rejects calling vessel ‘Prince Philip’, veteran Conservative labels ship plan ‘silly populist nonsense’
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to build a £200 million (US$278 million) flagship has come under fire for being an expensive vanity project that even Queen Elizabeth appears not to be totally on board with.
Downing Street announced last month plans to start building what would be the first national flagship since the Royal Yacht Britannia was decommissioned in 1997.
Johnson said it would be “the first vessel of its kind in the world”, would kick-start the UK’s diminishing shipbuilding industry and “represent and promote the best of British”, sending “a clear and powerful symbol of our commitment to be an active player on the world stage”.
Downing Street said the ship would sail the globe, attending and hosting trade fairs and ministerial trade summits as well as being a symbol of the UK’s engineering capacity.
Negotiations began this week for UK membership to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. The CPTPP removes 95 per cent of tariffs between its 11 members, which include Japan, Australia and Canada.