How Royal Navy ship names create political anchors

Why are British cruiser and frigate groups commonly described by town or county names rather than only by the first ship completed?

The collective names reflect a deliberate political strategy: ships tied to prominent places and titles acquire advocates and become more difficult to cancel.

Class naming carries political weight beyond naval tradition. Names such as Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh, and London give ships visible constituencies and make cancellation politically costly, while HMS Belfast adds the public presence of a preserved warship beside London's media institutions. The HMS Lancaster episode and the monarch's title as Duke of Lancaster illustrate how a well-chosen name can also recruit support at the highest level.