Yamato intelligence and the fate of the Lion class

What chance did Britain have of completing the Lion class if other capital-ship programs stayed on schedule?

Completion becomes much more likely if a Lion is already advanced when Britain discovers Yamato's eighteen-inch armament.

Intelligence about Yamato provides the strongest stimulus for renewed British big-battleship construction. British estimates first had to absorb a ship thought to carry seventeen-inch guns and then the reality of eighteen-inch weapons. If King George V production stayed on schedule and a Lion hull was already well progressed, that revelation could supply the urgency needed to continue construction. The chance of completion depends on how much work is already embodied in a Lion when the intelligence shock arrives.