Gordon Brown has lent his voice to calls for the building of two new aircraft carriers to be spared George Osborne's axe. The former prime minister claimed in an
interview with the BBC that the carrier programme was vital for the future of the UK's security.
"We have 1,500 people who are serving the country here who are building and assembling parts of the aircraft carriers and they will be essential to the defence of Britain in future years," he said.
"We've got 170 apprentices here who have been taken on specifically for the aircraft carrier and they deserve the right to know that the work that they're doing, which is of great national importance, is going to continue."
Quite despite the fact that many of the workers are Polish, I can quite understand why Gordon Brown is so concerned.
Can Britain afford not to build £5bn Royal Navy aircraft carriers? - 28 Feb 10
– with work being done in Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle and the backyard of the Prime Minister's constituency in Fife, there are also accusations this is a job creation scheme for key Labour seats.
But given this headline from one year ago, I'm suprised that the Carrier debate is still going on!
Navy surrenders one new aircraft carrier in budget battle.