Clarke ‘extremely sceptical’ about Trident
Former home secretary Charles Clarke has said he is “extremely sceptical” about replacing Britain’s nuclear deterrent system, Trident.
He said the biggest threats facing Britain in the future were terrorism, organised crime and people trafficking, which “aren’t in my opinion confronted by the Trident submarine-borne missile system”.
Mr Clarke is the first senior member of the Labour party to speak out so openly about what to do when the weapons system expires in about 20 years.
Downing Street today said a white paper would be published on Monday, setting out the risks and cost of replacing Trident – which some argue could be up to £25 billion – and other options.
The government will make clear its preferred option and there will be a three-month consultation on these proposals before a Commons vote. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have both committed themselves to keeping some kind of nuclear weapons system.
Anti-nuclear campaigners CND and Greenpeace have already begun lobbying against any replacement, saying Britain must abide by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty which commits it to a gradual reduction in its nuclear weapons.
A number of Labour backbenchers, including John McDonnell – who has promised to challenge Gordon Brown for the Labour leadership – and deputy leadership hopeful Jon Cruddas have also begun campaigning against replacement.
The Conservatives believe Britain must keep its nuclear deterrent as an “insurance policy”, and therefore any vote is unlikely to go against the government. However, the opponents’ cause will be bolstered by Mr Clarke’s comments.
“I am extremely sceptical. Trident was an expensive weapons system developed in the Cold War to meet the conditions of the Cold War, which ended 17 years ago,” he told Today.
“It is still capable of functioning for about another 15 years. I think we have to take our security decisions on the basis of what are likely to be the main security threats in the future, rather than building weapons to fight the last war.”
He added: “These types of threats that we have to face today aren’t in my opinion confronted by the Trident submarine-borne missile system.”
However, he said he had not yet decided which way he would vote next year, and would wait until he had seen the options laid out in the government white paper.
Fifty-seven MPs have so far signed an early day motion put by Labour MP Gordon Prentice calling for a green paper setting out all the options and costings on Trident before the government outlines its own ideas in a white paper.
It says Tony Blair’s statement in June that a decision would be made by the end of the year was a “wholly unnecessary straightjacket on the timetable”.
