Talks to save East Yorkshire aircraft factory jobs

More than 180 workers at BAE Brough face redundancy

An MP has met with defence officials to try and save jobs at a military-training aircraft factory.

More than 240 workers at BAE Systems' plant in Brough, East Yorkshire, face redundancy after the Kuwaiti government decided not to buy Hawk jets.

Conservative MP David Davis said he had spoken to the Minister for Defence Procurement, Stuart Andrew, about government support for the factory.

Unions have warned that without more Hawk orders manufacturing could end.

In October 2017, BAE announced almost 400 job losses at Brough.

Since then 147 workers have taken voluntary redundancy and 61 people have transferred to the engineering section leaving 185 workers reliant on Hawk manufacturing, according to BAE.

Mr Davis said the company's chief executive told him there would be no compulsory redundancies this year due to orders from the Qatari government and the US Navy.

The Haltemprice and Howden MP said: "The government must now continue doing all they can to ensure production continues at the BAE site.

"With over a hundred years of aircraft production at the site, BAE Brough is a very important part of the local and regional economy."

The Unite union has called for the Red Arrows to use the latest Hawk jet

The Unite union has called on the government to save jobs by buying the latest version of the Hawk trainer for the RAF Red Arrows display team.

Rhys McCarthy from Unite said the Red Arrows could "end up flying in foreign-built aircraft".

"The UK government must bring forward the replacement order of Hawk jets for the Red Arrows who are currently flying planes [that are] over 40 years old, and invest in the advanced Hawk programme to ensure the RAF's pilots of tomorrow are trained in the most up-to-date, cutting-edge aircraft available," said Mr McCarthy.