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  • 8 hours ago
Care minister Karin Smyth says that the UK's defence industry was "completely hollowed out" by previous Tory governments and says "it takes time to build some of that capacity". It comes after former NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson accused the prime minister of "complacency" regarding defence spending. Report by Keechl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Transcript
00:00Well, I mean, as they are, you know, strong words, but as Lord Robinson knows, and he's part of the
00:05review into defence,
00:06that we inherited a situation where our defence industry, like much of our public services, completely hollowed out by the
00:12last government.
00:13And that's why when we came into power in our manifesto, we were very clear about the need to get
00:19that defence spending back up
00:20and to invest in our defence industries, and that is what we are doing.
00:24We will reach 2.6% of spending next year. Conservatives never came anywhere near that.
00:30And, you know, that requires a lot of investment, and it takes time to build some of this capacity.
00:36So that is what we are doing. We have the plan. The investment plan will follow.
00:39But we're already getting on with that. We're building ships in the Collide, submarines into Derby.
00:44I was speaking to MPs last night. There's lots of work going on technology and drones, et cetera, in places
00:50like Shipley, my own city of Bristol.
00:52There's lots of places around the country that are already making sure that we are actually getting on with rebuilding
00:58that defence capacity.
00:59And the other thing that we're doing that the Tories never did is investing in Britain
01:03and making sure that the jobs, as a result of our need to increase our security, are happening here in
01:08Britain.
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