[Kristorf]

Hawker might have seen it that way, but the Spitfire was never viewed as a stopgap by the Air Ministry. Neither did the Tornado, developed in parallel with the Typhoon, have any serious chance of seeing production status.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Tornado

As far as I can find the Air Ministry and those in power at the time were impressed with the Spitfire (original Ministry requirement F7/30 and changed to F37/34 to suite Mitchells design) after its initial air tests with the prototype and placed an order for approx 300, unheard of in that era especially with lack of further tests.

The problems emerged later, when after over 2 years since the initial order was placed not one Spitfire had been produced with Supermarine constantly blaming sub-contractors for delays and poor quality work.

The Air Ministry and the heads of the RAF placed great faith in Sidney Camms track record (Hart, Hind etc) and hoped that the Tornado would come out of the blocks running, however problems with the Rolls Royce engine kept setting the programme back.
Also many at the top of the RAF believed that a front line fighter should be twin engined and be able to carry cannon (something the Spitfire could not do successfully until 1941) so placed hope in both the Bristol Beaufighter and Westland Whirlwind, both of which suffered 'abnominal teething problems', the Spitfire was pushed forward.
Prior to this the Government had considered selling the Spitfire as an export only aircraft in an attempt to recoop the ever increasing costs (origanally approx