BAE Systems' Australian ship order can't paper over Tories' Brexit mess

Ministers have been trumpeting the deal, but the ships will be built in Australia, while hundreds of thousands of UK manufacturing jobs remain under threat

BAE Systems: The defence contractor is celebrating a big order for frigates from Australia (Getty Images)

Woo hoo, we’ve sold the Aussies some ships.

Cue a blizzard of self congratulatory tweets from ministers touting the “deep and special partnership” we have with that country.

Oops, sorry. My mistake. We’re supposed to be developing a “deep and special partnership” with the EU, which we’re leaving. It’s just that T.May and Co are messing up any chance of that happening.

But see, we’ve sold some ships!

The order for eight frigates that BAE Systems has won is indeed good news. For BAE Systems. It should reap a handsome profit from the sale of a design that was subsidised by UK taxpayers.

It will build the ships in Austrialia, which understandably wants to see Australian taxpayers’ money going to support Australian jobs.

The GMB union used that principle to once again urge that a £1bn planned order for three new military support ships is kept in Britain.

Amid lots of Tory patriotic chest beating, the status of that one remains up in the air.

Because they are support vessels, the policy that holds frontline military ships should be build in the UK doesn’t apply.

Why not, asks the GMB. Surely British tax payers money should go to support British workers? And British supply chains? Well, yes.

BAE’s British supply chains might benefit from the Australian order. But amid all the fluff and bluster from ministers about the frigates, the sale, the close relationship wit Australia and even possible future BAE orders, which seem to come along like London buses, one thing has to be remembered. The May Government's disastrous conduct of Brexit is poised to destroy many more jobs than it will create.

Nissan, which employs thousands of people in Sunderland, has already deferred investment in the North East citing uncertainty. Warnings have been issued by Airbus, and BMW, among others. Business groups are screaming blue murder.

And the response of our foreign secretary Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johson?

F*** business. Which seems to be the position of the UK Government too if you consider the more decorous reaction to last week’s business warnings given by born again Brexiteer Jeremy Hunt. You may remember he told firms that it was “inappropriate” for them comment on the very real issues they are confronting thanks to his Government’s ineptitude.

It’s interesting to note that City trading firm INFINOX, which has been tracking online news and social media, found sentiment towards the Tory Party’s beloved project in June slipped to its lowest level since the EU referendum at 38.7 per cent.

One thing that Leave and Remain are more or less agreed upon is that the Government’s handling of the thing has been atrocious. Those of us who manage to remain gainfully employed after it happens might get to enjoy watching the Government reaping the whirlwind.

But look, see, a British company has flogged some ships.

And if you work in manufacturing for a company that isn’t part of BAE Systems’ supply chain, there will always be the option of going out into the field to pick the soft fruit that’s currently rotting.