Anti-nuclear campaigners have called for an end to the Special Relationship – particularly its nuclear elements – ahead of Theresa May’s meeting with US President Donald Trump.
Kate Hudson, CND general secretary, said:
“There is widespread recognition that President Trump poses an increasing nuclear threat to the world. He has encouraged proliferation and a new nuclear arms race, and calls for a major increase in the US nuclear arsenal. This is a disastrous direction for US foreign and military policy – and for ours too, as we are tied to the US in the Mutual Defence Agreement. Signed in 1958 this is the most extensive nuclear sharing agreement in the world.
“Theresa May says she’s meeting Donald Trump to strengthen the Special Relationship, but it has never been more important to break out of this potentially catastrophic nuclear collaboration. Mrs May must use what influence she has to turn back the tide of nuclear rearmament.
“How can Britain play a more co-operative and constructive role in the world when we are tied in to an increasingly aggressive US foreign policy underpinned by nuclear weapons?
“Britain shouldn’t be standing shoulder to shoulder with Trump’s dangerous agenda, it should instead be forging a new role for itself with a foreign policy that promotes co-operation and peace. This must include joining negotiations in 2017 at the United Nations for a Global Nuclear Ban.”