Defence review closes as Woodcock’s rival enquiry ramps up

The deadline for member submissions to Labour’s defence review expires this weekend amid claims that an unofficial parallel party enquiry is gaining more traction with MPs.

Emily Thornberry, shadow Defence Secretary, is leading the official review, which launched in January amid controversy that Ken Livingstone would be co-convenor. Livingstone was moved to co-convene the Labour foreign policy review, a role he is unlikely to continue in following this week’s suspension.

The process has hit further snags, with MPs raising concerns that only one parliamentary evidence session on Trident – the most controversial aspect of defence policy – has been held so far. That meeting, it has been reported, featured two anti-Trident academics and was attended by just one MP.

John Woodcock, who is chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) backbench defence committee, is running his own review into the Trident missile system, providing further evidence sessions for MPs on the issue – including a meeting earlier this week which was addressed by the Royal Navy’s Vice-Admiral Simon Lister and defence minister Philip Dunne.

Previous meetings in the unofficial review have featured the chair of the CND, two former Labour defence secretaries, a former Labour foreign secretary, a former Lib Dem minister, a former head of the navy, the businesses that design and build the submarines, foreign policy experts, the chair of RUSI and the two leading historians of the UK’s nuclear deterrent. A session with trade unions is understood to be forthcoming.

Sources suggest that these meetings organised by Woodcock, whose Barrow constituency has a shipyard where Trident submarines are made, have been more well-attended by Labour parliamentarians.

Thornberry is expected to deliver her initial findings of the review late next month, and Woodcock hopes to strengthen PLP dupport for Trident renewal ahead of a crucial vote later in the year.