Speaking at the Nato summit in Warsaw earlier this month, one
of the last actions of David Cameron as Prime Minister was his announcement
that MPs would vote on 18 July on
renewing the UK's Trident nuclear weapons programme.
The Trident nuclear
programme covers the development, procurement and operation of the current
generation of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them for our country.
The former Prime
Minister has said that he believes the vote will confirm support for replacing and
upgrading the current systems, calling Trident an "essential
deterrent" to both Britain's security and the overall security of NATO.
I believe it is absolutely vital that we maintain a
continuous independent nuclear deterrent as the ultimate guarantee of our
national security. The Government has consistently set out the case for
maintaining our nuclear deterrent. Of course all of us would wish that we could
live in a world without nuclear weapons. However, it is clear that the world
today is becoming an ever more dangerous and in many ways unstable place to
live. I believe firmly that we cannot dismiss the possibility that a major
direct nuclear threat to the UK might re-emerge. This alone is a powerful
reason for the retention and renewal of Trident.
There are various claims about the cost of renewing
Trident. This current commitment represents a cost of £31billion over 35 years.
This is 0.2% of our overall defence spending and the full cost of the Trident
programme is only 6% of our defence budget. I believe this puts the cost of
this piece of our military capability into perspective and represents value for
money for the tax payer.
Despite successes over recent decades in limiting the number of states with nuclear capabilities, we still cannot rule out, particularly in these turbulent times, a major shift in the international security situation which would put us under grave threat. We should not abdicate our roll in the world and ‘outsource’ this part of our defence to other nations with nuclear capabilities. We need to stand together with our allies and demonstrated out commitment. That is why I do not believe, particularly under the current circumstances, that it would be right to give up this capability.
The Government's policy has been to retain the Trident continuous nuclear deterrent, where there is always one of our four nuclear submarines armed and at sea, to provide the ultimate deterrent to anyone threatening the UK. This will also secure thousands of highly-skilled engineering jobs in the UK.
I fully support the renewal of
our nation’s own nuclear deterrent in the form of the Trident missile system
and voted for this on Monday. This is the only sensible policy for ensuring our
country’s future security. This I believe is the first priority of any government.
As always, my team and I are here to serve the whole
constituency and work hard to make a real difference to the lives of everyone
needing support. If there is an issue you would like my assistance on then
please contact me on either 01726 829379 or office@stevedouble.org.uk.
Additionally, I hold regular, appointment only, advice surgeries across the
constituency. Dates of these can be found at: www.stevedouble.org.uk/events
