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Theresa May does not hesitate to say she would kill '100,000 men, women and children' with nuclear strike
Theresa May does not hesitate to say she would kill '100,000 men, women and children' with nuclear strike
(35 minutes later)
The Prime Minister has told MPs she would be prepared to authorise a nuclear strike as she warned that Jeremy Corbyn's opposition to maintaining the UK's deterrent is "quite wrong".
Theresa May has declared without hesitation that she would order a nuclear strike to kill hundreds of thousands of people if she thought it was necessary.
Theresa May, making her first Commons speech since entering Number 10, said the "very real" threat posed by Russia and North Korea meant the UK could not afford to "relax our guard".
The Prime Minister gave the blunt reply during a parliamentary debate on the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons programme, which many suspect was staged by the government for the sole purpose of drawing attention to the rift between Jeremy Corbyn and a majority of Labour MPs.
But Mr Corbyn repeated his position that he would not be prepared to press the nuclear button if he was in Number 10, arguing that threatening "mass murder" was not the way to handle international relations.
Ms May was challenged by the SNP’s George Kerevan, who asked: "Are you prepared to authorise a nuclear strike that could kill hundreds of thousands of men, women and children?”
Labour is deeply split on the issue and the party's MPs have a free vote. Mr Corbyn is set to go against the Government's motion on maintaining the UK's round the clock nuclear deterrent by replacing the four ageing Vanguard submarines that carry the Trident missiles. However, other members of his frontbench are expected to either abstain or vote with the Government.
Ms May replied with one word: “Yes.”
The party's policy remains to support the continuous at-sea deterrent, but a review was launched when Mr Corbyn became leader.
She also told MPs that it would be "an act of gross irresponsibility" for the UK to scrap its nuclear weapons and accused opponents of the UK’s Trident missile system of being "the first to defend the country's enemies".
In a swipe at the Labour leader, Mrs May said: "Some people suggest to us that we should actually be removing our nuclear deterrent. This has been a vital part of our national security and defence for nearly half-a-century now and it would be quite wrong for us to go down that particular path."
Previous prime ministers have avoided answering the hypothetical question of whether they would ever press the nuclear button. Sir Geoffrey Howe, who was Foreign Secretary in the closing years of the cold war, said it was a question no prime minister should ever answer directly.
Directly challenged in the Commons on whether she would be prepared to authorise a nuclear strike that could kill thousands of "innocent men, women and children", Mrs May firmly replied: "Yes."
But Ms May knew that the Labour leader was prepared to state his position, which is the opposite of hers. Without being asked, Jeremy Corbyn volunteered the statement that “I’m not making the decision that kills millions of innocent people.”
Setting out the case for remaining a nuclear power, the Prime Minister told MPs: "The threats from countries like Russia and North Korea remain very real. As our Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) made clear, there is a continuing risk of further proliferation of nuclear weapons.
He added: “I do not believe the threat of mass murder is a legitimate way to go about international relations.”
"We must continually convince any potential aggressors that the benefits of an attack on Britain are far outweighed by their consequences.
The decision to stage Monday's vote was made by David Cameron, who sat three rows back saying nothing while his successor addressed the Commons.
"And we cannot afford to relax our guard or rule out further shifts which would put our country in grave danger. We need to be prepared to deter threats to our lives and our livelihoods and to those of generations who are yet to be born."
Officially, Parliament was being asked to agree to spend up to around £30 billion renewing the four Trident submarines that are equipped with nuclear missiles and warheads. Every hour of the day or night, there is always one submarine patrolling the sea.
Mr Corbyn reiterated his opposition to the potential use of the weapons - one of the key elements of the doctrine of nuclear deterrence.
Trident was originally bought from the USA by Margaret Thatcher as a last ditch defence in case the armies of the former Warsaw Pact, which was disbanded in 1989, overran Europe.
He said: "I make it clear today that I would not take a decision that kills millions of innocent people. I do not believe the threat of mass murder is a legitimate way to go about dealing with international relations."
Since 1989, it has been the official policy of the Labour Party to support the retention of Trident, to which Jeremy Corbyn, as a back bench MP, was consistently opposed.
He told MPs "we are not debating a nuclear deterrent but our continued possession of weapons of mass destruction", which are capable of killing one million people per warhead.
He announced that he would vote against Trident again, but as he spoke, he was constantly interrupted by Labour MPs who demanded that he should defend the party’s policy instead of giving his own opinion. His response was that there is a review of Labour defence policy being carried out by the newly appointed Shadow Defence Secretary, Clive Lewis.
He added: "What is the threat that we are facing that over a million people's deaths actually deters?"
The head of the GMB trade union Tim Roache insisted Mr Corbyn should abide by existing Labour Party policy, which is to back Trident renewal. He warned that 45,000 jobs around the country - many of them highly skilled - were dependent on the programme going ahead.
Mr Roache, who supported Mr Corbyn as leader, told BBC Radio 4's The World at One: "The Labour Party have a clear policy. The clear policy is that Labour will uphold an at-sea deterrent.
"I would expect therefore all Labour MPs, including the leader of the Labour Party - in fact, especially the leader of the Labour Party - to uphold that current policy."
With Mr Corbyn set to face a leadership challenge from either Angela Eagle or Owen Smith, Mr Roache said he would now be balloting his 640,000 members on whether they believed he was still the right person to lead the party.
Mr Roache's comments came as Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson warned of "consequences" for trade union bosses, such as Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, who continued to back Mr Corbyn.
He told The World at One: "You have Len McCluskey strongly supporting Jeremy Corbyn, who will be voting against the Trident programme tonight, which will put many defence workers in Unite out of their jobs if he gets his way.
"If I was a defence worker in Unite and I was reading social media that Unite were about to give Jeremy Corbyn a quarter of a million pounds of my subscriptions, I would be furious."
