House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt docks in Belfast for ‘amazing’ Harland & Wolff visit

The Fleet Solid Support (FSS) contract with Royal Fleet Auxiliary unlocked £77 million of investment for Belfast-based Harland & Wolff to build three 40,000-tonne vessels which will supply the Royal Navy fleet, and Nato navies at sea.

Ms Mordaunt visited Harland & Wolff, which is home to one of the largest deep-water dockyards in Europe, as upgrades to the shipyard got under way to facilitate the new contract, which she said was "brilliant news for the whole of the UK".

To mark the beginning of the work she met apprentices due to work on the project.

Ms Mordaunt said she had been discussing the expansion work at Harland & Wolff.

"It's been fantastic to visit this incredibly important yard, which is really helping us bring shipbuilding back to the UK and enable us to expand that sector," she said.

"We've been discussing expanding the square footage of this yard and we've cut the turf today on that, but it's also about expanding jobs - 800 jobs here, 1,200 across the whole of the UK, but also knowledge and this really unique project for the fleet support ships is doing that.

"It's building capacity here and we're getting knowledge transfer from our partners.

"So it's been an amazing, amazing visit."

Devolved government in Northern Ireland has not been functional for over a year due to the DUP's ongoing protest against post-Brexit trade agreements.

Asked if making decisions on future investment in Northern Ireland was easier when a devolved government was in place, Ms Mordaunt said: "Of course it is.

"And we really want people to have local decision makers taking decisions.

"Our focus is delivering for the people of Northern Ireland and that's one reason why I'm here today.

"We had an Investment Summit here a couple of weeks ago that went really well. So things are still moving ahead. But of course, we want the local governments back up."

Ms Mordaunt said Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris was doing a "great job" in his attempts to get Stormont restored.

"Chris is doing a great job. He's incredibly focused, but we want local decision making stood up.

"That's what everyone wants, it's what people in Northern Ireland want, it's what the UK Government wants," she said.

The FSS contract was awarded in January 2023 alongside partners in the Team Resolute consortium, comprising Navantia UK, Harland & Wolff and BMT.

The upgrade of the Belfast shipyard, to adopt state-of-the-art shipbuilding techniques, will underpin Harland & Wolff's capacity to deliver key naval programmes of FSS and beyond.

olff, acquired it for £6 million.