Downing Street backs Sir Nicholas Houghton in Corbyn row

Downing Street has waded into the dispute over Sir Nicholas Houghton’s comments regarding Jeremy Corbyn and his position on Trident. After Houghton, the Chief of the Defence Staff, told Andrew Marr yesterday that the prospect of Prime Minister Corbyn would ‘worry’ him, the Labour leader complained of constructional meddling and asked the Defence Secretary to investigate the comments.

Michael Fallon has yet to respond but No.10 has meanwhile defended Houghton’s remarks. At today’s lobby briefing, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said his points were valid and appropriate (quotes via The Guardian):

‘He was asked about deterrence. He made the point about the credibility of the deterrent. As the principal military adviser to the government, it is reasonable for the chief of the defence staff to talk about how you retain the credibility of one of the most important weapons in your armoury.’

This row essentially boils down to whether you consider it Houghton’s job to outline how Britain’s nuclear deterrent works, why it exists and the perplexing nature of Corbyn’s position — he said he’d never fire the weapons, making Trident a huge waste of money — or whether his intervention was overtly political and meant to hurt Labour.