Campaigners have condemned defence secretary Michael Fallon’s announcement to spend a further £642 million on Trident ahead of a Parliamentary vote on whether to replace Trident, the UK’s nuclear weapons system.
Kate Hudson, CND general secretary, said:
“I ask Michael Fallon, what is the point of a parliamentary vote on Trident if the government’s going to spend millions on replacement anyway?”
“This is completely unacceptable. This is about huge amounts of money being spent on out-of-date technology that will be redundant by the time it is built.
“There is a growing body of evidence which shows that Trident is vulnerable to cyber warfare and attacks by underwater drones.
“The government appears to be burying its head in the sand – stuck in a 1980s mind-set that we are a great power fighting in the Cold War.
“We ask for some objectivity in considering Trident. It is time the government thought very carefully about the real security threats we face from terrorism, climate change and global pandemics, but also be honest about the very real threat posed by our own nuclear weapons system.”