Rishi Sunak sinks Boris Johnson dream of ‘Royal Yacht Britannia’ flagship
- The ex-PM and other Brexiteers had hoped the US$284 million vessel would sail the seas promoting their concept of ‘Global Britain’
- But plans for the ‘vanity project’ have been torpedoed as the UK government tries to save money
Plans by former UK prime minister Boris Johnson to build a national flagship dubbed the “Royal Yacht Britannia” have been torpedoed by Rishi Sunak’s new government as it seeks ways to save money.
The ship was a much-derided dream of Johnson and other Brexiteers in the ruling Conservative Party who had hoped it would sail the seas boosting international trade and selling their concept of “Global Britain”.
But the yacht – tipped to cost about £250 million (US284 million) to build – found itself in the Treasury’s cross hairs, as Sunak navigates the stormy political waters of tax rises and drastic spending cuts to fill the estimated £35 billion fiscal hole in the public finances.
He and defence minister Ben Wallace have torpedoed the plans as finance minister Jeremy Hunt prepares to deliver a painful financial statement on November 17.
“In the face of the Russian illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and [Vladimir] Putin’s reckless disregard of international arrangements designed to keep world order, it is right that we prioritise delivering capabilities which safeguard our national infrastructure,” Wallace told parliament.
He told MPs he had “directed the termination of the national flagship competition with immediate effect” to bring forward the first multi-role ocean surveillance ship (MROSS) in its place.
Wallace said the MROSS would “protect sensitive defence infrastructure and civil infrastructure” and “improve our ability to detect threats to the seabed and cables”.
The main opposition Labour party’s defence spokesman John Healey said it was right that the “previous prime minister’s vanity project” had been scrapped.
It would have been be the first so-called national flagship in service since 1997, when the Royal Yacht Britannia was decommissioned.
Britain formally left the EU after nearly five decades of membership in January 2020, quitting its single market and customs union.
Bloomberg and Reuters
