Government Trident programme is “in trouble”, says Thornberry

Emily Thornberry, shadow Defence Secretary, has said the government is “in trouble” over Trident renewal.

Thornberry is leading Labour’s Defence Policy review, which the party say will “examine how the safety of the British people can best be secured in the global conditions of the 21st century”. It’s expected the results will be published in June.

She told the Guardian that the government have put off holding a vote about Trident renewal because their plans are insufficient.

“The Treasury are well aware of the problems, which is why they want to kick the can down the road. The government has to be accountable.

“We are putting down a barrage of parliamentary questions and FoI requests about it. This is not acceptable. All there is is political posturing. The programme is in trouble”, she said to the paper.

It was expected that there could be a vote on Trident’s successor next month but sources say the government have now delayed this until after the EU referendum.

The renewal of Britain’s nuclear weapons is a point of contention for Labour. The party’s leader Jeremy Corbyn has been a member of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament since the age of 15 and is opposed to renewal. A number of Labour MPs, including some shadow ministers, are in favour of renewal. It’s thought the government is delaying a vote to exacerbate Labour splits.

Thornberry criticised the government, saying their refusal to answer questions about Trident was “not on”.

“I appreciate they would rather have fun trying to embarrass the Labour party and some of the bad behaviour of my comrades is a bit of a distraction. But this is about national security, how we spend huge amounts of money and how we keep Britain safe. This is as serious a matter as it gets.”

“This is the single biggest investment this government is making. Cold winds are blowing through the economy, do we have £41bn down the back of the sofa? How are they going to control the costs? Who is going to regulate it?”