National flagship can be funded by private donors, says millionaire
A businessman who has spent £420,000 of his own money on plans for a replacement for HMY Britannia is offering to raise £250 million privately to build the ship as a tribute to the late Queen and bring in billions of pounds of trade for Britain.
Ian Maiden, who made his fortune in outdoor advertising, led one of 19 consortiums that put in bids to the Ministry of Defence to build the new national flagship over a year ago.
The winning design was due to be unveiled in May, but the process has stalled because Russia's invasion of Ukraine has put the UK defence budget under strain.
New Prime Minister Liz Truss said in July that she hoped the ship - enthusiastically supported by her predecessor, Boris Johnson - will now be funded by private donors.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Maiden said he knew of "four or five" high net worth individuals who could fund the construction of a new flagship, as long as they are given the signal to step in by central Government.
He said: "I can get four or five people who will come up with the funds. These are major household names in international trade in different spheres of activity. They will be falling over themselves to support the project as a trade platform."
The idea of using private money to pay for the new ship takes the programme back to where it was in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, when the Cabinet Office was seeking private backers.
Under Mr Maiden's plan, these business leaders could each put in around £50million to build the flagship, which would then cost about £20million a year of public money to run.
His own substantial detailed design - submitted to the Ministry of Defence earlier this year - has so far personally cost him £420,000, "paid out of my children's inheritance".
Mr Maiden said that the wave of patriotism and goodwill since the late Queen's funeral meant that people would be open to a replacement for Britannia, possibly called "Elizabeth the Second" or "Great Britain", after Brunel's ship.
Mr Maiden, 89, first set up a company to build a new "national flagship" in 1998, a year after the yacht was controversially decommissioned by the Labour government.
Mr Johnson then adopted the term "national flagship" rather than a "yacht" when he revived the plans in May last year, saying that it would reflect "the UK’s burgeoning status as a great, independent maritime trading nation".
Mr Maiden continued: "Britain is an island country. We are different from other nations and we should be proud of that.
"A national flagship as a trading platform is something that does not exist in the world. I visualise the importance of it and the unique characteristics of it, being able to visit a foreign port."
In its heyday Britannia was said to have been the catalyst for billions of pounds of inward investment deals and exports for the UK, when it held "trade days" for company bosses on overseas trips.
He said: "I can visualise exhibitions, trade missions, cultural exchanges, sporting events, but primarily trade - it must be considered to be primarily a generator of goodwill towards Britain and the encouragement of trade."
Glamour and importance
He added: "It would speak loudly for Britain in a manner that would be difficult to match with other countries."
The new national flagship would have "a certain glamour and attachment of importance" to it, he said.
"You won't necessarily get leaders going to a big conference centre or a major hotel, but they're not going to refuse an invitation to attend meetings on board the flagship in the way I have described."
Mr Maiden envisaged "the razzmatazz that would be associated with a head of state, entertained by perhaps our Government, or perhaps the royal family" on board.
"One thinks of the effect of Britannia when she visits anywhere with the Royal Marines band, floodlights, major receptions. The international press coverage would be the envy of the commercial world," he said.
Mr Maiden said it was not helpful to call it a yacht. He said: "The world has moved on now.
"I just feel that it strikes the wrong note. A royal yacht makes people think of champagne, gin and tonic on the after deck.
"We ought to be more practical now and think of something that's going to really serve British interests more solidly."
Asked why the plans for a replacement for Britannia have been repeatedly attacked by the Left, Mr Maiden said: "The Left is not particularly commercially-minded, to put it bluntly.
"They would think it's glamour, they would think it was frippery, it was a vanity project, all these sorts of things. I don't care what the Left think. It would be a great asset for the country." Mr Maiden added: "The mini Budget shows that the Government is prepared to strike a fresh approach unrestrained by traditional orthodoxy.
"Commissioning a new trading platform, a National Flagship, might be a part of this endeavour."
