Britian May Renew Nuclear Arsenal
Britain’s parliament is expected to approve a new nuclear arsenal this week, but the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, may have to rely completely on opposition votes to make sure his plans go through. Blair will be stepping down in the next few months and is convinced that Britain needs to renew its nuclear deterrent, even though there is much deep-rooted opposition within his Labour Party which could see scores of Labour lawmakers voting against him.
The government argued that Britain must keep atomic weapons because of future threats that may occur from Iran, North Korea, or nuclear terrorists mean abandoning them now could be a deadly mistake, even if there is no current threat at this time.
Blair dismissed opponents’ arguments that Britain is undermining hopes for international nuclear disarmament by buying a brand new generation of nuclear missiles. “There is absolutely no evidence whatever that if Britain now renounced its independent nuclear deterrent that would improve the prospects of getting multilateral disarmament … I think the reverse is the case,” he told parliament. Britain’s nuclear arsenal is the smallest among the five U.N. Security Council permanent members who are, at this time, legally recognized as nuclear states under the non-proliferation treaty.
It consists of four British-built Vanguard-class submarines that carry 16 U.S.-supplied Trident long-range missiles, armed with British-built nuclear warheads. The submarines are due to go out of service in about 2024. The government wants to spend up to 20 billion pounds ($39 billion) on three or four nuclear-armed submarines to replace them, saying it must act quickly to have a replacement ready in time. Blair did offer an olive branch to Labour Party rebels by stating that parliament could vote again between 2012 and 2014 on whether to approve contracts to build new nuclear submarines.
Blair has a majority of 67 in the 646-seat lower house. The revolt over Trident could be the biggest since nearly 140 Labour legislators voted against going war in Iraq. Opponents say Britain no longer needs weapons to deter an attack from a nuclear-armed Soviet Union, and by renewing the arsenal it would become harder to persuade countries such as Iran and North Korea to forsake nuclear weapons. Jon Trickett, a Labour legislator who has put forward an amendment calling for further debate on Trident’s replacement, said he expected many more than 34 Labour members of parliament to rebel against the government.
A revolt on that scale could leave Blair dependent on the opposition Conservative Party to push through his plans. The Conservatives back renewing Britain’s nuclear arsenal. Critics say the money could be better spent beefing up Britain’s conventional forces or on improving public services. A deep hostility to nuclear weapons runs through the Labour Party, which espoused unilateral nuclear disarmament until the late 1980s. Nigel Griffiths, deputy leader of the lower house of parliament and a member of Blair’s government, and Jim Devine, a ministerial aide, have resigned in protest at replacing Trident.