For my constituents in Edinburgh, the defence debate in Westminster can sometimes feel distant, dominated by discussion of GDP percentages and Treasury settlements.
Yet some of the most important work in keeping this country safe is happening a few miles from my constituency office and, following the publication of the government’s Defence Investment Plan, this is the moment to build on it.
In June 1943, a factory in the Crewe Toll area of Edinburgh began producing gyro gunsights for the Spitfire, as Britain battled for control of the skies over Europe. That site went on to become the birthplace of Ferranti’s radar business and is the direct ancestor of what is now Leonardo UK’s Edinburgh operations.
Over eighty years on, the site designs and builds cutting edge electronics equipment, including radar for the Typhoon and Gripen fighter jets and Norway’s all-weather search and rescue helicopters. It is, quite literally, part of the eyes and ears of the UK’s air defences and increasingly of our civil infrastructure too, with technology that helps stop drones over airports and critical sites. The technology has even found its way into elite sports, providing essential elements of the Hawkeye system used at Wimbledon.
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Companies like Leonardo are a key part of our regional economy and the broader national economy. Across the UK they employ thousands of people, invest hundreds of millions of pounds a year in R&D and keep that intellectual property onshore.
Beyond these economic considerations, they are rooted in the history of many of our cities, continuing a proud tradition of British industry through careers and apprenticeships that stretch back generations.
This illustrates a broader point about the UK economy that Westminster needs to grasp. What turns a spending commitment into tangible regional growth is the pipeline feeding it: skilled people, local supply chains and the confidence for firms to expand beyond simply fulfilling existing orders.
That point goes well beyond Edinburgh and well beyond defence. For years, Westminster has struggled to translate spending commitments into the kind of durable growth that changes places.
Andy Burnham understands this problem and his record in Greater Manchester shows what is possible when that changes: devolved powers over transport, skills and investment turned into a genuine regional growth strategy, with decisions taken by people who understand the local economy rather than made at a distance in Whitehall. Scotland already has significant devolved powers of its own, but there is more that government could do to give Edinburgh and the wider central belt the same confidence to make investment decisions in sectors like defence and advanced manufacturing.
None of that happens, though, without the people to deliver it. A regional powerhouse is only as strong as the regional talent pool, and that talent pool is one of our city’s underappreciated assets. Heriot-Watt, where I worked before entering Parliament, produces exactly the kind of engineering graduates that advanced manufacturing firms need, yet too many of them still end up in London or overseas because the opportunities to build a career here aren’t visible enough.
Schemes like the Edinburgh Guarantee, which has already matched thousands of young people with local jobs and apprenticeships, show what is possible when the connection between education and industry is made. The task now is to widen that pipeline and make sure advanced manufacturing employers are fully part of it.
Edinburgh has eighty years of proof that it can design and deliver world-class equipment to keep our country safe. Let’s make sure the next eighty years of production are here too.
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