Third MP quits as ministers respond to Trident critics
A third MP has resigned from the government in protest at ministers’ plans to renew the Trident nuclear defence system.
According to reports, Stephen Pound, the parliamentary private secretary to Hazel Blears, resigned today to vote against Trident renewal. Fellow rebels Jim Devine and Nigel Griffiths also outlined their reasons for resigning.
While the debate continued in the Commons, ministers responded to the 13,859 people who had signed a petition protesting against Trident renewal.
Foreign secretary Margaret Beckett and defence minister Des Browne disputed claims the UK needs to renounce Trident to position itself as a world leader on NPT, arguing the UK already leads by example with the smallest nuclear stockpile of any recognised nuclear weapons state.
Maintaining Trident nuclear weapons is “completely consistent” with the UK’s commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
It is not realistic to believe that the UK disarming would make any difference to other country’s, including North Korea and Iran, determination to acquire a nuclear capability, Ms Beckett and Mr Browne told the signatories of the e-petition.
The government believes in total nuclear disarmament, they added, but this must be multilateral not unilateral.
They concluded: “Are we prepared to tolerate a world in which countries like ours lay down their nuclear weapons first, leaving extremist or unstable countries to threaten the rest of the world or hold it to ransom?”
Posted on the Number Ten website, the petition called on the government to renounce nuclear weapons. It read: “This would be an historic decision; it would rank among the few truly moral actions ever carried out by a nation-state; and it would give the UK the moral standing needed to champion the Treaty and help turn the world back from possible catastrophe.
“This petition therefore calls on the Prime Minister not to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system, and so to champion the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
Protesters have also been gathering outside Westminster and Faslane to protest against Trident.
MPs are expected to vote at 7pm on Wednesday.
