RAF Marham montage

The government gave the clearest signal yet that Norfolk’s RAF Marham Tornado base is to be saved when a defence minister told the Commons that the costs of moving its maintenance facilities and contractor staff would be “prohibitive”.

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Nick Harvey emphasised that primary consideration would be given to military advantages and necessities in deciding the future of Marham and the Scottish bases of Lossiemouth and Leuchars after last year’s defence review. But he then seemed to come within a whisker of ‘making it Marham’ when he said that “the economics of moving the in-depth maintenance facilities for Tornado, at this stage in Tornado’s life-cycle, really would be very questionable indeed”.

The costs of taking the maintenance facilities from Marham and of paying to relocate the staff of the contractors involved “would be so prohibitive that it would potentially undermine any savings that might accrue from closing a base” he stressed.

Mr Harvey was answering a charge from Labour shadow defence minister Kevan Jones that the government’s review of bases was “a bit of a sham”, and that he had appalled people working at RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Leuchars when he told a meeting – at RAF Kinloss in Scotland – last week that the costs of relocating Norfolk’s Tornado fleet would be “very high”.

The minister also told SW Norfolk MP Elizabeth Truss that because the maintenance facilities are “a major infrastructure installation operated by contractors, it would inevitably be very expensive to relocate”.

He suggested last week that an announcement on whether Marham will keep its Tornados or whether they will be moved to Scotland might not come come until the summer – which would be after the elections to the Scottish Parliament on May 5. But yesterday he told MPs that “we hope to make a full announcement in the spring”.

After the Commons exchanges, Ms Truss said that things were looking “better and better” for Marham, and that she was not aware of any military case against keeping Tornados at the base that would trump the economic arguments for keeping them there.

But she also emphasised that it was “frustrating” that the government had got so close to an announcement that the Norfolk base is safe without actually saying it. She hoped to have a conversation soon with defence secretary Liam Fox to stress the need for a speedy announcement, she said.

She was encouraged, she added, that Mr Harvey had talked of the costs of moving from Marham being “prohibitive”, and felt that it would now be very difficult for the government not to keep the Tornados there.

Mid-Norfolk MP Keith Simpson said that it was definitely “advantage Marham” but added that an announcement could have to await further deliberations on the ‘draw-down’ of British troops in Germany who are to be brought back to British bases. He dismissed the notion that a decision to save Marham had already been taken, and that the announcment was being held back only because of the impending elections in Scotland.