This week in Parliament GMB officers, reps, workers from our shipyards and the steel industry, MPs and Peers met in a crowded room in support of GMB’s Turning the Tide report which had been launched earlier this week.
Our General Secretary, Tim Roache opened the meeting which was packed, with standing room only. The meeting provided the perfect opportunity for GMB reps from across the country - shipbuilding from Devon & Cornwall, Rosyth, the Clyde, Liverpool and Belfast, from Steel – South Wales and Yorkshire, to tell MPs and Shadow Ministers how vital it is that Labour continues its support of the shipbuilding and steel industry.
Also that the Labour Party holds the Tory Government to account for its short sighted decision to go to international tender for the building of three new Royal Fleet Auxiliary support ships, instead of restricting the tender for reasons of defence and security to UK shipyards.
Members got to put questions directly to the panel, which included the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, NiaGriffith MP, who spoke decisively about the need to support and utilise our UK shipyards. A number of other frontbenchers were also present, all of which were hugely supportive of GMB’s report and calls for investing in UK shipbuilding and using British steel.
All attendees present were left in no doubt over the momentum that GMB’s Making It campaign is gaining, particularly in the area of shipbuilding. All MPs and Peers at the meeting spoke passionately about their support for the industry and our members, but a huge thank you should go to Paul Sweeney who helped arrange the event and who spoke as one of the few MPs to have worked in a shipyard.
This meeting builds on the consistent and growing parliamentary activity that supportive MPs have been working hard on in recent months – such as Wayne David MP pressing Government Ministers over why they are going to international tender and how beneficial building the three RFA solid support ships would be to UK shipyards, as well as the Westminster Hall Debate on a National Shipbuilding Strategy led by Plymouth MP, Luke Pollard.
