'Pre-emptive strike' as Brown supports £25 billion launchpad for UK nuclear deterrent » Central Government » 24dash.com

Peace campaigners and unions reacted with fury tonight after Chancellor Gordon Brown declared his support for the retention of Britain's independent nuclear deterrent for the long term.

Mr Brown's comments mark one of the strongest signals yet that the Government intends to green-light a replacement for the UK's ageing Trident missiles, at a cost estimated at up to £25 billion.

Liberal Democrats accused the Chancellor of pre-empting public and parliamentary debate on the decision, which Prime Minister Tony Blair has already indicated will be taken during this Parliament.

Leading Labour left-winger Alan Simpson described Mr Brown's comment as "a pre-emptive strike on parliamentary democracy".

The Nottingham South MP told BBC2's Newsnight: "It just seems bizarre that this is announced in the Mansion House, when MPs have been asking for this debate to take place in Parliament.

"The notion of saying we will put £25 billion into a weapons system that we've never really known how or when we'd use, when we can't afford to pay people's pensions... and we can't afford to pay public sector pay rises, what on Earth are we doing?"

Labour MP for Norwich North Ian Gibson said: "It would have been a big, radical move, I think, to have said No to Trident and to have put the money into other areas.

"It would have been a real political plus and would have restored a lot of confidence in Brown."

The Conservative chairman of the cross-party Commons Defence Committee, James Arbuthnot, said a vote in Parliament was vital.

"I think it would be pretty unthinkable not to have a vote on an issue as important as this," said Mr Arbuthnot.

"Where does the money come from?

"Does it come out of the Defence budget?

"In other words, do we sacrifice something like the aircraft carriers in order to have a strategic nuclear deterrent? That would be a very damaging decision to have to take."

But the Tories, who are already committed to replacing Trident, dismissed his remarks as "spin", saying that he was simply repeating a pledge in Labour's 2005 General Election manifesto to retain the current nuclear deterrent.

Speaking at the Lord Mayor's Banquet at the Mansion House in London, Mr Brown said that said that the Government would show "strength of national purpose" in "protecting our security in this Parliament and the long-term - strong in defence in fighting terrorism, upholding Nato, supporting our armed forces at home and abroad, and retaining our independent nuclear deterrent."

It was the first time he has signalled publicly his belief that there is no political block to the retention of the UK's nuclear deterrent and his personal conviction that it should be kept.

Mr Brown's comments formed part of a wide-ranging speech in which he also indicated his support for a new generation of civil nuclear power plants.

He said the Government's energy review, due in July, would "set out a balanced long-term policy which takes account of guaranteed supply, including investment in renewables, clean coal and nuclear".

The speech will be seen as a further signal of the Chancellor's determination not to allow his expected move to 10 Downing Street to be portrayed as taking Labour back to its left-wing, anti-nuclear past.

Britain's Trident missiles and the Vanguard submarines that carry them will be phased out within 15 to 20 years, and the Government believes a decision on whether to replace them is needed in this Parliament if their successor is to be ready in time.

Officially, ministers insist no decision has been taken, but it is widely thought that Mr Blair is privately in favour of going ahead with the replacement, with an announcement possibly coming as early as this summer.

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament chair Kate Hudson said she was "appalled" by the Chancellor's apparent intention to renew Britain's nuclear arsenal, which she said would be "nuclear hypocrisy of the worst order".

Renewing demands for the decision to be determined by MPs voting in the Commons, Ms Hudson said: "To actively pursue a new nuclear arms race in that way will only contribute to global tensions and lead other countries to conclude that they also need to develop nuclear weapons."

Keith Sonnet, deputy general secretary of Unison, the country's biggest trade union, said: "Trident should not go ahead - it will cost the country up to £25 billion against a non-existent threat.

"I hope Mr Brown will reconsider his position on this. The Labour Party promised a full and open debate on this issue, yet the Prime Minister and Chancellor are already making their views clear, which is wrong."

Greenpeace campaigner Dominick Jenkins said that replacing Trident would "destroy" the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Britain is a signatory.

"Senior ministers should not be trying to pre-empt a full parliamentary and public debate on this crucial issue," he said. "If this is Gordon Brown's idea of democracy, it bodes very ill for any future Brown premiership."

Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox played down the import of Mr Brown's words.

"This is just more spin designed to cast Gordon Brown as a statesman," he said. "His words are exactly the same as those in the 2005 manifesto and are not new.

"The Chancellor is reheating an old pledge to retain the current nuclear deterrent, but he is not committing to replacing the independent nuclear deterrent when it reaches the end of its current life. Yet again Gordon Brown is playing fast and loose with the truth."

And Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Nick Harvey said: "Gordon Brown's posturing on Trident is smothering the national debate that this Government promised to the British people.

"Regular Liberal Democrat parliamentary questions have brought repeated denials from ministers that work on options for Trident replacement has even started.

"The British people deserve a comprehensive White Paper and full parliamentary scrutiny of a scheme that may cost up to £25 billion to replace."

Chris Ballance, a Green Member of the Scottish Parliament, said: "This is just another sign that Brown is just exactly the same as Blair. It's a completely waste of taxpayers' money, breaks international law and is morally wrong."

In tonight's speech - possibly the last he will make as Chancellor to the annual Mansion House event - Mr Brown ranged far from his Treasury brief to discuss issues such as education, transport, trade and Europe as well as defence and energy.

He voiced his ambition to make Britain "the most global and outward-looking of nations" by supporting free trade and tackling protectionism.

And he signalled that, as Prime Minister, he would not back away from New Labour reforms of the public services.

"Last month we published our white paper on pensions reform and have sought to build a long-term national consensus for pension reform," he said.

"In the next year we will also make the difficult choices - and seek to build a national consensus on - the long term reforms necessary in infrastructure, transport, planning, energy and welfare - to ensure that we, Britain, combine the flexibility we must have for global success with the sustained investment we need in our future.

"In all these areas over the next few years, as we the British people equip ourselves for our global future, the economic and public sector reform agenda will be stepped up and will broaden, deepen and intensify."

Shadow chancellor George Osborne responded: "Gordon Brown seems to be having an identity crisis.

"For nine years he opposed Blair's reforms and now he supports them. And for nine years he has been putting up taxes - and he celebrated that in his recent Budget.

"Now he says Britain needs 'a low tax economy'. I agree, but actions speak louder than words."

Prime Minister Tony Blair told MPs there should be "the fullest possible debate" on replacing Trident, but has so far stopped short of promising a vote in Parliament.

The former Assistant Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Lord Garden, said the Government was wrong to think it must make a decision on replacing Trident within the coming years or months.

Lord Garden, now a Liberal Democrat peer, told BBC1's 10 O'Clock News: "We have great uncertainty in the world. It may be that the world will get safer and we won't need a nuclear weapons system. It may be that the world will get more dangerous, and we will.

"The thing to do is leave it as long as possible. As long as it's safe to do, leave the decision. Otherwise you may be wasting money or building the wrong system."

Labour backbencher Gordon Prentice asked: "How are we going to persuade other countries around the world not to go for nuclear weapons, when we are spending millions of pounds not disarming, but upgrading our own nuclear weapons system."

At Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons today, Mr Prentice warned it would be an "absolute outrage" if billions of pounds were "squandered" on a new generation of nuclear weapons without a vote by MPs.

Mr Blair replied: "There should be the fullest possible debate on this issue. I am sure there will be."

He reconfirmed that a decision about replacing Trident would be taken in this Parliament.

Some 122 MPs - including 93 Labour members - have signed a parliamentary motion urging the Government to allow a Commons vote on the issue.

The early-day motion, tabled by former minister Michael Meacher, calls on the Government to "produce a Green Paper on Trident replacement that considers all possible options, including non-replacement, and ... not to conclude any agreements, or to engage in preparations to build a new generation of nuclear weapons, until after this debate and a deciding vote held in Parliament."

CND this evening highlighted a recent poll suggesting that 81% of voters think that the decision should be taken by MPs voting in Parliament, against just 10% who thought it should be a matter for the Prime Minister alone.

:: ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1,012 adults on June 14 and 15.

Copyright - Press Association 2006