Trident renewal could come to Labour conference vote

Whether the Trident nuclear defence system should be renewed could come up for debate at Labour conference in Brighton next week, after a surprise decision from the Conference Arrangements Committee.

The contemporary motion on Trident, proposed by Kensington Constituency Labour Party, has been added to the priorities ballot. This means delegates will vote on which issues in that list they want to debate – other topics that could be debated through the priorities ballot include housing, the refugee crisis, welfare, the NHS, and Syria.

New leader Jeremy Corbyn has long been vocally opposed to renewing Trident, but other major figures in the Shadow Cabinet, such as deputy leader Tom Watson and Shadow Defence Secretary Maria Eagle, are understood to be in favour.Corbyn has mentioned it as one of the issues he is keen to debate openly within the party. During last week’s Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, finding a person for the defence role who was open to debating the topic proved difficult.

There is also a split among trade unions: GMB and Unite represent workers whose jobs rely on Trident, so are in favour, while Unison are opposed.

If it does come to a conference vote, it is unclear what the result would be. Unions hold a large amount of the vote on the floor, but are split, and it seems many members are too.