Sir Keir Starmer said the announcement marked a “momentous” day as he praised Universal Studios for choosing the UK as its first location in Europe for a theme park. The prime minister said: “What a momentous day, what an important day. It’s not just the first one in the United Kingdom, that would be pretty good, it’s the first one across Europe, and that is really incredible. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00It is a big part of our business, the theme parks business. We have parks in Florida, California, and Asia.
00:08Never had an opportunity to find a place to put a park in Europe.
00:12And so we've looked and thought about it for years and years, knowing that when we build a park, the bar is very high.
00:19It's such an important experience that we pride ourselves in how well we execute that it's got to be done to a perfect level of execution
00:27between the incredible storytelling, the incredible immersive experiences, obviously the rides themselves, which are great, the food that goes around it.
00:38All of that is, and the people in the parks, the employees that bring it all to life, all that is incredibly critical.
00:46Universal could have chosen anywhere in Europe to make this investment.
00:50The fact that they've chosen Britain, the fact that they've chosen Bedfordshire, is a real sign of confidence in the local economy and in the national economy.
01:00£50 billion benefit to the UK economy, 28,000 jobs in a whole range of sectors.
01:07Obviously construction, that's going to be a massive part of it in the next few years.
01:12But also then retail, hospitality, creative industries, performing arts, things that this country is brilliant at.
01:19What a momentous day. What a momentous day. What's such an important day.
01:22And it's not just the first one in the United Kingdom. That would be pretty good.
01:27It's the first one across Europe, and that is really incredible.
01:32And it's going to put Bedford on the map for millions of people.
01:36Film lovers, people coming here for fun, people building their careers here.
01:41It'll create thousands of jobs for the local community.
01:45And the statistic for that is really impressive.
01:4880% of the jobs are going to be local jobs.
01:52So just looking behind me, these are going to be the jobs of yourselves and your colleagues for years and years to come.
01:58I have to say, I've got two children, one 16, my boy, and one 14, a girl.
02:04They don't take that much interest in the announcements I'm making every day, I have to admit.
02:09But this one has really caught their eye because they can envision themselves at this theme park like millions of other children for decades to come, coming and enjoying it.