Responding to the expected announcement in the Government’s Integrated Review that Britain’s nuclear arsenal will increase for the first time since the Cold War, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) General Secretary Kate Hudson said:
‘This is no time to start a new nuclear arms race. As the world wrestles with the pandemic and climate chaos, it beggars belief that our government is opting to increase Britain’s nuclear arsenal.
Last month, Presidents Biden and Putin agreed to further reduce their nuclear arsenals by renewing the New START Treaty. Johnson should not be increasing ours.
With the government strapped for cash, we don’t need grandiose, money-wasting spending on weapons of mass destruction. We need essential investment in health, jobs and dealing with the climate catastrophe.
If this is part of a ‘Global Britain’ narrative, then Johnson needs to reframe it: we need to be at the heart of global cooperation to deal with the challenges the entire international community faces. Racheting up global tensions and squandering our resources is an irresponsible and potentially disastrous approach.
This is the time to get out of nuclear weapons not escalate the problem.’