Penny Mordaunt unveils three brand new flagships to triumph Britain's maritime glory: 'The spirit of Britannia lives on!'

They will be built in British shipyards and manned by at least 50 per cent apprentices, allowing the ship to be used for training purposes across the Commonwealth.

Mordaunt said the new ships are designed to be "about modern Britain" but said the "spirit of Brittania lives on" in her new project.

The Leader of the House of Commons told GB News: "I was brought up in Portsmouth. Britannia was often there. She was the most glamorous thing I'd ever seen in my life.

"And people have an affection for her because she really was Brand Britain and she went around the world and she said a lot about our nation and events were hosted on there.

"This ship...is going to continue that spirit, but it's modern. It's doing ocean cleanup, it's doing humanitarian disaster relief.

"It's capacity building in other nations. You can imagine the kind of trade expos we could we could have on these vessels. So that's what this is doing.

"It's not another Britannia. Britannia was iconic and and unique.

"This is about modern Britain and our role in the world."

But a key difference between Boris Johnson’s £250 million plan for a replacement for the Royal Yacht Britannia, Mordaunt's plan will be funded and run privately, not using money from the taxpayers.

The first of the three ships is expected to cost £150 million.

Mordaunt envisions the three ships to be stationed around the world, with one being placed in each ocean of the Commonwealth - allowing the project to cover "about 90 per cent of the Commonwealth".

A key factor behind the project, Mordaunt explained, is that Britain is a "proud maritime nation".

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She said: "We are a maritime nation and if we want to remain a maritime nation, it's in our interest we do. 90 per cent of everything you've eaten or touched today has come here by sea.

"We need to be investing in our Merchant Navy and we need to be providing our Mariners and other with sea time.

"That education is a huge export in itself. And you're right this is also about global Britain, but it's also about leveling up.

"One of the major shipyards described it as the 'missing seed in the UK shipbuilding strategy'. It's providing that steady work and enabling that investment."