Security risk?

The defence industry has warned the government it risks undermining the UK’s high-tech economy and its security if it imposes cuts in an effort to curtail soaring national debt.

The government is planning to review spending on Ministry of Defence projects next year and defence spending has been highlighted by some as a prime source of overall savings.

Ian Godden, chief executive of the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC), said Britain’s defence industry makes up 10 per cent of the UK’s manufacturing and engineering economy.

‘If you cut it by 10 per cent you will cut two to three per cent out of the engineering and skill base - the very thing the government says we should be increasing,’ he said.

Godden added that the defence sector is a net export-based industry. ‘So cutting here versus some other places will have a major drag effect on the economy,’ he said. ‘This is going to reduce the ability of Britain to come out of the recession and to become an export-led recovery.’