Burnham faces Airbus pressure over £2.4bn satellite deal

Unite has stepped up pressure on Andy Burnham to back Airbus for a £2.4bn military satellite contract, arguing that handing the work to Lockheed Martin would be a serious mistake for UK industry and jobs.

The dispute centres on Skynet 6 WSS, a defence programme that will deliver two geostationary satellites for the Ministry of Defence. According to the Guardian, the system is intended to carry some of the UK armed forces’ most sensitive data, making the procurement a strategically important decision as well as a commercial one.

Burnham urged to award 2.4bn military satellite contract to Airbus

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said selecting the US group instead of Airbus would be a massive mistake. The union represents workers involved in building the satellites, and it has warned that as many as 600 jobs could be affected if the contract goes elsewhere.

Airbus, though headquartered in France, designs and builds satellites in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, and Portsmouth, Hampshire. That UK manufacturing base is central to the union’s argument that the work should stay with a company with an established domestic footprint rather than move to an American competitor.

The contract battle is also being framed as an early test of how Burnham’s promise to use public procurement to support British industry will be applied in practice. Public procurement decisions are often watched closely because they can influence not just what government buys, but where major industrial work is carried out and how long supply chains remain in place.

The decision is expected to matter beyond the immediate contract because it comes amid wider tensions over defence purchasing. The Guardian reported that the UK is trying to manage a difficult relationship with the Trump administration, which has pushed other countries to buy more American equipment. That context gives the satellite competition a broader political dimension, even though the immediate issue remains which supplier will secure the work.

Wes Streeting, who has recently taken over as defence secretary, is also set to face the issue as one of his first major spending decisions. That adds another layer of scrutiny to a contract already attracting attention from unions and Labour figures.

Kevin Bonavia, the Labour MP for Stevenage, is also said to be pressing for Airbus to win the deal. His involvement reflects the local significance of the manufacturing base in Stevenage, where satellite work supports skilled employment and specialist engineering capacity.

For Airbus, the contract would reinforce the company’s role in the UK space and defence supply chain. For Lockheed Martin, it would represent a major win in a competition with both industrial and political consequences. For the government, the choice will be read as a signal of how seriously ministers intend to apply their stated support for domestic industry when the numbers are large and the bidder is foreign-owned.

The final decision will be closely watched because of the size of the contract, the number of jobs potentially affected and the sensitivity of the satellites involved. At stake is not only a procurement award, but also the credibility of Labour’s industrial strategy in one of its first major tests.