Luke Pollard The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence
With your permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to update the House on the UK-Türkiye deal to sell 20 British-built Typhoon fighter jets.
On Monday, the Prime Minister travelled to Ankara with the Defence Secretary, where he finalised an agreement with President Erdoğan for Türkiye to purchase 20 British-built Typhoon fighter jets. That deal is worth £8 billion and is our biggest fighter jet export contract since 2007. This is a massive boost for our defence industry, for our economy and for our country. It confirms that defence is an engine for growth.
This deal will support 20,000 jobs across 330 UK companies across the country. In particular, it will support jobs in Lancashire, Bristol, Luton and Scotland for many years to come. That includes nearly 6,000 jobs directly supporting the Typhoon programme at BAE Systems sites, particularly at Warton and Samlesbury; more than 1,100 jobs in the south-west, such as at the Rolls-Royce facility in Bristol, producing modules for the EJ200 jet engines that will power these new Typhoon jets; and over 800 jobs in Scotland, including manufacturing cutting-edge radar systems at Leonardo in Edinburgh. Those are high-value, well-paid, good, unionised jobs—the kind of jobs that put money in working people’s pockets, help revitalise communities, and help deliver on defence as an engine for growth.
This deal also preserves our sovereign skills, which underpin our national security and prosperity, so that they can be handed down to new generations. But it goes far beyond the procurement of Typhoon jets alone; it represents the leading edge of our enhanced strategic partnership between the UK and Türkiye. This agreement between our two countries is emblematic of a growing defence and industrial partnership, and will serve as a springboard for deeper collaboration in future.
Türkiye is a key NATO ally in a strategically critical part of the world and the gatekeeper to the Black sea. By equipping it with top-of-the-range Typhoon fighter jets—the best fourth-generation all-round fighter in the world—this deal strengthens NATO’s collective deterrence in a crucial region. It boosts interoperability between our air forces and makes us all safer and more prosperous.
This deal comes just weeks after Norway chose the UK to supply it with at least five Type-26 frigates in a £10 billion deal—the biggest ever warship export deal by value in our history. That contract alone secures 4,000 UK jobs, including more than 2,000 in Scotland, and supports over 400 British companies right across our supply chain. Both deals, worth a combined £18 billion, are proof positive that other countries want to invest in Britain. When allies choose our capabilities, it leads directly to greater interoperability and investment back into our technology to achieve warfighting readiness. The deals are clear evidence that this Government’s defence industrial strategy is delivering.
Here is what we are doing differently. This Government are going further and faster to back British industry, British jobs and British innovation. We are working more closely with allies around the world to strengthen our collective security. We are bringing forward the biggest sustained increase in UK defence spending since the cold war to make Britain secure at home and strong abroad—£5 billion extra in the defence budget this year, achieving 2.5% of GDP by April 2027 and 3% in the next Parliament. And we are making defence an engine for economic growth for the next decade and well beyond, driving renewal and opportunity up and down the country.
As we set out in our defence industrial strategy, our armed forces are only as strong as the industry that stands behind them. We are fortunate in this country to have a world-class industry and a world-class supply chain, but we are making them even stronger by opening up defence to innovators, overhauling our procurement system, cutting contracting time, and increasing foreign direct investment in our defence sector by more than eight times over the past year.
Last week, before I visited BAE Systems in Warton and Samlesbury, I launched a consultation on an offsets policy, which will ensure that every pound spent on defence will make our armed forces stronger and the British public better off. The proposal would mean that when the UK buys from international partners, the winning contractor would be required to create jobs, know-how and investment opportunities here in the UK, strengthening the UK economy.
To the workers, managers and apprentices I met last week in Warton and Salmesbury, but also to those in Bristol, Edinburgh and across the UK, let me say this: this Government promised that we would have your back, and we are delivering on that promise with this deal. Your hard work, dedication and commitment helped deliver this deal, just as much as diplomacy and negotiation did. Thank you.
The UK and Türkiye may be positioned at opposite ends of Europe, but our partnership is helping to protect the continent at a time of rising threats, and the deal that we have announced this week only reinforces that partnership for the future. Work on the new Typhoon jets begins immediately. The first British-built Typhoon for Türkiye will be delivered in just five years’ time, so the benefits will be felt immediately too: more jobs for working people, more investment in the supply chain, more confidence in the UK economy, defence as an engine for growth, security at home, and strength abroad. That is what this Government are delivering, and that is why I commend this statement to the House.
John Whittingdale Conservative, Maldon
The Minister will be aware that Türkiye was removed from the F-35 programme following its acquisition of the S-400 Russian air defence system amid concerns that it could compromise the F-35 technology. Can he say whether Türkiye has agreed to return the S-400, and if not, is he confident that our technology will not be similarly at risk
Luke Pollard The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence
I am comfortable that we have adequate measures in place on that matter. However, the right hon. Gentleman is right that Türkiye does not participate in the F-35 programme. As part of our work with Türkiye, there is a strong opportunity to ensure that the procurement opportunities that Türkiye has face firmly west rather than east, and that is an important part of the strategic relationship that the UK is seeking to build with our friends in Ankara. If we can find more opportunities to procure British and allied technologies into Türkiye, with it then having less of a reliance not just on combat and sensing systems, but on oil, where it may look elsewhere, that will help to improve all of NATO’s security, as well as supporting our friends in Ukraine.
To watch the full clip of Sir John’s speech please click on the video link below:
