National elections in the UK in July have led to a different party in power, despite the incoming Labour party only gaining 1.6% more of the share of the votes cast. Such is the way of the British electoral system.

Prior to this election, one Member of Parliament – Emily Thornberry (Labour party) – had repeatedly raised questions in the House of Commons regarding a helicopter contract. This operation provides high security transport for key government ministers, and has been outsourced to the private sector for nearly 30 years.

The helicopter type had evolved from two (later three) AS355 Twin Squirrels in 1996 and was renewed with three A109E by the Labour government under Tony Blair. Nine years ago it was down downgraded by the recently out-voted Conservative party under David Cameron, and reduced to just one Leonardo AW109SP GrandNew. This has been flown by the Royal Air Force and maintained by Sloane Helicopters, who were also contracted to provide a backup aircraft when the primary one was on maintenance.

Asking around HeliHub’s contacts in the UK helicopter industry, the general feeling was that Emily Thornberry MP saw this operation as providing a private helicopter for the then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and overlooked the time-saving benefits of travelling by helicopter and the significantly reduced security risk by avoiding travel in ground vehicles.

Thornberry also ignored the fact that Defence Secretary Ben Wallace in Sunak’s Government first came up with the idea to cancel this contract in July 2023.

Now Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Defence Secretary John Healey have decided not to renew the contract which is due to expire at the end of 2024, claiming it was their idea.

Either way, the move means that key British government ministers will be put to a much higher security risk when they travel in 2025 and beyond, and will reach their destinations later.

The UK now joins Canada in being the only G7 countries without a governmental helicopter service. For Canada this is more understandable as the distances between cities is much higher, and helicopter connections are much less relevant. The Royal Canadian Air Force operates CL604 Challenger jets as a result, in much the same way the UK Royal Air Force use a pair of Falcon 7X jets for longer distance work.

RAF Image by: Cpl Ben Tritta