Liz Truss promises yacht worth £200m in her bid to become UK PM, royal family disapproves

Liz Truss tried to bolster her chances of becoming the next prime minister of Britain on Thursday by expressing backing for yet another national big ship as the nation recovered from the state of emergency temperatures and amid an increasing cost of living calamity. Nobody, not even the Queen, could have genuinely anticipated seeing another royal yacht in their lifetime. However, here we are 25 years later. The Royal Yacht Britannia is currently anchored next to the blue parking lot of the Ocean Terminal shopping centre in Leith, close to Edinburgh, and all of its clocks display the same time: 3:01 pm. On December 11, 1997, at that time, the Queen stepped off the ship for the final time. She was notably seen crying as the Royal Navy band played a farewell to the soon-to-be-mothballed vessel.

Why do some individuals get so aroused at the sight of a large British ship? Since 2016, when the newspaper and its then-columnist helped secure Brexit, The Daily Telegraph has been pushing for one. A new "national flagship" would be constructed, according to Johnson's announcement from last May, "representing the UK's increasing standing as a great, independent maritime trading nation." However, the Ministry of Defence is reluctant to foot the bill due to a £16 billion equipment budget backlog. Britannia was frequently used by the royal family and in approximately 1,000 state visits, but it was becoming more expensive to maintain, so Tony Blair decided not to recommission it in 1997. He later claimed that he regretted that choice.

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But today, it's unclear who actually wants a yacht. Not the general public; according to YouGov, only 29% of people supported it in 2017. Not the royal family, who deemed it "not something we have asked for" and voiced their displeasure over plans to name a new ship after the Duke of Edinburgh. Truss is aware, however, that talking about a yacht while claiming she wants to fund it privately "allows her to pledge support for the idea without it ever happening," as Sunder Katwala, director of the think tank British Future, put it, six weeks before Conservative members choose Britain's next prime minister.

(with inputs from agencies)