BREXITEER Tory plans to build a new Royal Yacht Britannia have resurfaced.
One government minister said giving the queen and the country a brand new boat would “unite” Brexiteers and Remainers.
The idea was floated in the months after the Brexit referendum but was effectively killed off by Theresa May.
In an interview with The House magazine, Housing Minister Jake Berry said a new boat would “bring our country back together” and help drive the UK’s overseas trade policy outside the European Union.
SNP MP Deidre Brock, whose Edinburgh North and Leith constituency is home to the old Britannia, called the proposal a relic from the age of empire.
Labour’s Ged Killen asked how it would unite the country: “Are we all going to get a shot on it?” he tweeted.
In his interview, Berry said: “The rebuilding of the Royal Yacht Britannia is not government policy. However, my personal view about it is that in a post-Brexit environment it could play a real role in driving international trade.
“Things like that can provide new symbols of unity that we could potentially use to bring our country back together, something we could be proud of, something we could unite behind.
“President Obama said that there were … ‘only two people I really admire in this world and that’s Nelson Mandela and her majesty the queen’.
“Absolutely, he was right about both of those extraordinary global political giants. A new royal yacht could be something which we could unite behind. But, as I say, it’s not government policy.”
Reacting to the news, Brock said: “The Royal Yacht Britannia is a museum in Leith now, a relic of the days of empire, and that’s how it should stay.
“Every so often a Tory MP gets his dander up – it’s always a man – and decides to try to revive some of the old trappings of empire. We get told we need the return of royal yachts, the death penalty, national service, workhouses and a navy fit to rule the waves.
“The truth is that the UK is now a middling power on the international stage – at best – and no amount of harrumphing, toasting the queen or reminiscing about how it was in the good old days will change that.
“So long as Tory MPs remain stuck in the past with the misty glaze of imagined history obscuring their vision, they will never be of any use to anyone but they will remain a menace to all of us.”
Back in 2017, Boris Johnson threw his weight behind the campaign for a new yacht, saying it would “add greatly to the soft power of this country”.
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