{"id":89292,"date":"2026-07-24T04:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T04:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/89292\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T04:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T04:01:16","slug":"douglas-alexander-on-trade-visit-to-bae-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/89292\/","title":{"rendered":"Douglas Alexander on trade visit to BAE Systems"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    Written by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.deadlinenews.co.uk\/author\/phyllis-stephen\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" class=\"molongui-author-link\" data-author-id=\"9707\" target=\"_blank\">Phyllis Stephen<\/a>        <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">THE Scottish Secretary, The Rt Hon Douglas Alexander, had a busy day on Thursday with a visit to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baesystems.com\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">BAE Systems<\/a> in Glasgow as part of his agenda. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He met with apprentices and staff at the site to learn how UK Government investment supports skilled employment. The Prime Minister made a commitment earlier this week to deindustrialise Britain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The UK Government says it supports shipbuilding on the Clyde with investment from the <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/media\/6a44e989167a99cf0018da38\/The_Defence_Investment_Plan.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Defence Investment Plan,<\/a> the Scottish Defence Growth Deal and a \u00a310 billion Norwegian shipbuilding contract. Andy Burnham <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/pm-meeting-with-prime-minister-store-of-norway-23-july-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">spoke to<\/a> the Norwegian Prime Minister,Jonas Gahr St\u00f8re, on Thursday agreeing that as a result of strong partnership between the two countries there are industrial opportunities to explore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr Alexander said: \u201cIt was a pleasure to visit BAE Systems and see the incredible skills and expertise here in Glasgow. It shows exactly why Scotland is so central to our national defence and our industrial future. This is the defence dividend in action \u2013 billions of pounds of UK Government investment creating and sustaining good jobs in communities right across Scotland.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/edinburghtrams.com\/tap-tap?utm_source=Edinburgh_Reporter&amp;utm_medium=print&amp;utm_campaign=Tap_Aff_June26\" aria-label=\"TOTA 2026_The Reporter ads 04-01\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- width=\"970\" height=\"250\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TOTA-2026_The-Reporter-ads-04-01.jpg\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TOTA-2026_The-Reporter-ads-04-01.jpg\" alt=\"\"   width=\"970\" height=\"250\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHaving been reappointed as Scottish Secretary earlier this week, I will work closely with Prime Minister Andy Burnham to drive good growth and give people back hope. Scotland\u2019s world-class defence sector \u2013 and the skilled jobs and apprenticeships at the heart of it \u2013 will be central to that ambition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sir Simon Lister, Managing Director of BAE Systems\u2019 Naval Ships business in Glasgow added:<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe were delighted to welcome the Scottish Secretary to our yards. We\u2019re proud of our people and the work they do here in Glasgow for our customers, so it was a pleasure to introduce him to some of our talented colleagues. In the last two years, we have invested heavily in our skills and infrastructure to create a world class shipyard. These investments have created opportunities to serve customers here in the UK, and abroad, and create a new history for shipbuilding here in Glasgow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, said that \u201ckeeping people safe is the first priority of any Prime Minister. in his first speech in Downing Street, Mr Burnham said that the country will \u201chonour our commitments on defence to our international partners\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.deadlinenews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/BAE.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-dominant-color=\"88a2b2\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #88a2b2;\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1273726 not-transparent\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/BAE-1024x683.jpg\"\/><img data-dominant-color=\"88a2b2\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #88a2b2;\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/BAE-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1273726 not-transparent\"  \/><\/a>Use of photo courtesy of BAE Systems<br \/>Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP.Secretary of State for Scotland.Toured the BAE Systems Shipbuilding Academy and Shipyard in Scotstoun Shipyards <br \/>Pictured in front of HMS Cardiff<br \/>\u00a9 John Linton 2026.All rights reserved<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"m-a-box-avatar-url\" href=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" data-lazy- class=\"avatar avatar-150 photo\" height=\"150\" width=\"150\" itemprop=\"image\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1835fcad4b0d54be11c79fe070deee4b13cc0c1d26de202da60dc77eab7876cf.jpeg\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1835fcad4b0d54be11c79fe070deee4b13cc0c1d26de202da60dc77eab7876cf.jpeg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-150 photo\" height=\"150\" width=\"150\" itemprop=\"image\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Written by\u00a0Phyllis Stephen THE Scottish Secretary, The Rt Hon Douglas Alexander, had a busy day on Thursday with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21224],"tags":[21234,8160,38460,123,1143,38461,1261],"class_list":["post-89292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bae","tag-bae","tag-bae-systems","tag-douglas-alexander","tag-edinburgh","tag-scotland","tag-scottish-news","tag-uk-government"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116972964220641391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}