Threat to UK helicopter building

The key concern is that tooling and jigs for making airframes for the Wildcat, which are owned by the Ministry of Defence and leased to Leonardo, could be shipped overseas.

A decision on the future of helicopter manufacturing in the South West will made by July, parliament has heard.

The Unite union has been pressing MPs on the issue since last summer when Italian-owned Leonardo Helicopters, based in Yeovil, Somerset, lost out to Boeing in its bid to gain the majority of the work for the latest generation of Apache attack helicopters for the British Army.

The airframes would have been built by GKN on its neighbouring site, which will close at the end of this year with the loss of 221 jobs. GKN said Leonardo has decided to take in-house all future work on Wildcat helicopters.

The key concern is that specialist tooling and jigs for making airframes for the Wildcat on the GKN site, which are owned by the Ministry of Defence and leased to Leonardo, could be shipped overseas.

Harriett Baldwin, minister for defence procurement, said: “We have not yet been given a proposal by the industry about the next steps. We expect to be able to make a decision by July. That will take into account the UK’s wider interest.”