Government declares itself ‘very keen’ to see costed plans to bring back a Royal Yacht to replace HMY Britannia
But Department for International Trade ruled out spending any taxpayers’ money on the project
THE GOVERNMENT has declared they are “very keen” to see costed plans to bring back a Royal Yacht for the Queen.
But the Department for International Trade ruled out spending any taxpayers’ money on the project, first revealed by The Sun.
The Queen’s private yacht was decommissioned in 1997, but now senior Tories want to bring it back as a floating Embassy to drum up post-Brexit trade around the world.
More than 100 Tory MPs are backing a new Britannia and MPs debated the plans in a patriotic session in Parliament this afternoon.
Campaigning Tory MP Jake Berry who is leading the calls said the new boat would be a "small piece of Britain that can move between international port and international port".
Responding to the backbench debate, Trade Minister Mark Garnier said if a costed plan is drawn up to privately funded Royal Yacht: "we would all be very keen to see it".
But a government source added that the new yacht "is just so far down the agenda" and "at this time" there is no prospect of taxpayer cash toward it.
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Mr Garnier told MPs that they estimate the cost of new yacht would be around £120million. Dozens of Tory MPs spoke up for the project in a two hour debate in Westminster Hall.
Former Defence Minister Mark Francois called for the running costs of the state vessel to be paid for out of the "rising" international aid budget.
Another former Defence Minister Sir Gerald Howarth said a new Royal Yacht is "very important to the dignity of our country; it is not a luxury."
He added that the decommissioning of Britannia in 1997 was "one of the darkest moments of my life".
But Tory Andrew Andrew Murrison warned that the new Britannia must be "tasteful, not a gin palace and not a Philip Green type model".
MP Jack Lopresti said the referendum result mean that it was the "perfect time in history" for a new Britannia as it could be "a massive signal to the world that, unshackled from Brussels, Britain is back."
But Labour’s Barry Sheerman labelled the plans "nonsense" and angry SNP MPs spoke against the project.
Edinburgh MP Deidre Brock called the idea "a wasteful throwback to the days of the Raj.”
Tory MP James Gray intervened in her speech to angrily admonish the Scottish MP for calling Britannia "it rather than she".
The DUP’s Ian Paisley said the new boat would be "floating advertisement for all that is wonderful about Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
He also pledged the shipyards of Ulster could be used "if Scot nats won't build it".
Although he was not present at the debate, Boris Johnson believes a new boat would be a “great symbol of global Britain".
In 2012 ex-PM David Cameron backed the idea of a new Royal Yacht.
The plan was the brainchild of Rear Admiral David Bawtree and would have cost £60 million.
At the time £10million was pledged by wealthy Canadian financiers and an unnamed £5m private donation.