MPs have voted by 472 votes to 117 to renew Britain’s so-called “nuclear deterent,” specifically replacing four Vanguard class submarines with four Successor submarines.
It is a sad day for British politics and shows the inappropriate priorities of the political establishment in Westminster.
Plaid Cymru has accused pro-trident MPs of acting irresponsibly and putting the security of the UK at risk as they choose to spend billions of pounds on a “toxic status symbol” at the expense of dealing with modern security threats facing the British state.
The SNP’s leader in Westminster Angus Robertson has meanwhile stated: “It would be both morally and economically indefensible for the UK government to commit to spending hundreds of billions of pounds on weapons of mass destruction – even more so at a time when they are cutting funding for public services.”
Both Plaid and the SNP are spot on and it was interesting that one Conservative (Crispin Blunt, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee) told the Commons that the lifetime cost of Trident renewal would be £179 billion. This would be made up of "capital costs of £31 billion with £10 billion contingency and ongoing costs that would equate to 6% of the annual defence budget.
Mr Blunt was the only Tory to oppose renewal, while 140 Labour MPs backed the position of the Conservative Government. Only 47 Labour MPs voted to oppose the weapons of mass destruction, while 41 abstained.
Others against the renewal of trident included the SDLP, the single Green and the Lib Dems.
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