Liam Fox attacks �2bn tank deal

By Amy Wilson 1012PM GMT twenty March 2010

The FRES director armoured car

The approaching preference to endowment the stipulate to American-owned General Dynamics (GD) has already drawn critique from the British counterclaim company, BAE Systems, that will lose out on the work.

The full stipulate to set up reconnoitering vehicles for the programme well known as FRES Scout could be value up to �4bn. The Ministry of Defence is approaching to make known tomorrow that GD has won the initial phase.

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"It is inapt for the Labour celebration to begin creation pledges they might not keep," pronounced Dr Liam Fox, shade counterclaim secretary. "They are working similar to a broke shopaholic carrying one last binge on their approach to jail."

He additionally criticised the MoD and the companies for going along with the project.

"It is wrong for polite servants to be signing up projects and it is wrong of industry to go along with vital projects so close to a ubiquitous election," he said.

The MoD faces a �35bn appropriation black hole on projects to that it is already committed such as the dual new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter planes.

Dr Fox pronounced that the Government should not be awarding vital apparatus contracts until the vital counterclaim examination programmed for after the choosing is carried out. "We have to have a severe discuss about what we positively need to be means to do in Britain, what we would similar to to do if we had lots of money, and what we don"t unequivocally need to do here," he said.

Dr Fox gave his await to companies such as GD that has a UK workforce notwithstanding being foreign-owned.

"I think there"s been as well most tenure discuss and not sufficient about what record is being grown here," he said.

BAE last week charity to move work on the car it is charity from Sweden to Newcastle after it emerged that GD was the expected leader of the FRES Scout contract. The association says it needs a solid upsurge of commercial operation from the MoD or it will risk losing learned employees.

The Tories have done a declaration joining to enlarge counterclaim exports, observant it is the usually approach profitably to say the made at home industry indispensable to supply Britain"s armed forces.

Dr Fox identified Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Norway as intensity business or partners in corner buying and trade programmes.