As people are forced to choose between heating and eating as the cost-of-living spirals, the PM will hail the £250m boat as a symbol of ‘Global Britain.’

Amid warnings that the UK faces the biggest income squeeze in nearly 50 years and that the cost-of-living crisis could prove “fatal” for some, Boris Johnson is planning for a grand reveal of a new £250 million ship.

The prime minister is set to confirm plans to unveil the design of the new national flagship vessel ahead of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations later this year.

On March 10, Johnson published a new national shipbuilding strategy, which commits to unveiling the design for the new flagship to “showcase cutting-edge British shipbuilding, engineering and technology, particularly clean maritime technologies” in the spring.

A ‘floating embassy’

Described as a “floating embassy”, the vessel is expected to be paid for out of the Ministry of Defence budget – with costs well exceeding the original £200 million projection.

As the Telegraph reports, the vessel will be seen as a replacement for the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was axed by Tony Blair’s government in 1997. Blair’s decommissioning of the ship dismayed many traditionalist Tories, many of whom have been campaigning to recommission the ship, which is currently in a dock in Scotland, ever since.

In 2016, the Telegraph launched a campaign, led by Tory backbencher Jake Berry and endorsed by Boris Johnson, for the return of the Royal Yacht’s overseas duties. However, the then prime minister Teresa May torpedoed the plan to recommission the Royal Yacht Britannia to boost trade post-Brexit.

Plans for the ship are now back on course, with government officials hoping the £250 million vessel will be seen as a “restatement of the values and business case of the ship.”

However, the proposals have been condemned, with some suggesting such a flamboyant and expensive act of patriotism will backfire.

SNP MP Tommy Sheppard criticised the proposals, suggesting the PM was displaying the good judgement one would expect of a “medieval tyrant.” Speaking to the National, Sheppard said:

“I think if it looks like a royal yacht, sounds like a royal yacht, it probably is a royal yacht. And I think obviously the Tory government regards this as an appropriate thing to do during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.”

Boost the case for Scottish independence

The MP continued that he predicts the announcement will “backfire badly” on Johnson, bolster the case for Scottish independence, and “do great damage to the Royal Family.”

 “I’m sure the last thing the royal family would want is to be seen having this degree of public expenditure lavished on them at a time of great austerity and hardship for many millions of people in the UK.

“This type of misplaced priority underlines yet again the need for Scotland to consider becoming a politically independent country and charting its own course.

“We can all think of better things to spend £250m on. Trying to try to alleviate the absolute misery that many low-income families are facing in the cost-of-living crisis would be a good place to start.

“This is a sense of priorities that wouldn’t be out of place in some sort of medieval feudal society,” Sheppard added.

‘Indefensible’

Amid a climate of cuts to Universal Credit and other benefits, the SNP had described the expenditure of a new national flagship as “indefensible.”

Even the Royal Family has distanced itself from the plans, knocking the PM back when he, in May 2021,  gleefully announced he wanted to splash the cash on a new British flagship.

Now, with the cost-of-living spiralling and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine set to add further strain to household budgets, going full steam ahead with the ‘royal yacht’ plan is likely to become another scandalous embarrassment for Britain.

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward

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