Scandal of our scrapyard Navy: We sold Ark Royal to the Turkish for scrap... now we have to buy back bits of her to repair UK's last carrier

The Ministry of Defence was forced to buy scrapyard parts to keep its only carrier in service.

Today The Mail on Sunday can reveal how, in a frantic effort to refit HMS Illustrious after a fire, MoD officials salvaged parts from her sister ship HMS Ark Royal – the aircraft carrier sold two years ago.

To public outcry, the historic vessel was sent to a Turkish scrapyard to be recycled into tin cans.

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