24 hours after Scottish Labour voted to oppose renewing Trident, the party’s policy is firmly where it was before this weekend’s conference. On the World at One, the shadow defence secretary Maria Eagle thanked the Scottish Labour conference for their thoughts and said their vote won’t be changing Labour’s policy:
‘I welcome the input of Scottish Labour and its conference into our internal debate, they’re one of many important voices that there are across the Labour movement about this issue.
‘But let’s very clear about what this does and does not mean. This does not change our policy. Defence isn’t a devolved matter, so Labour party policy has to be set at a national party level, at a UK level.’
In response to Diane Abbott’s comments to Coffee House on how the vote reflects a wider shift in the Labour party’s thinking, Eagle pointed out that the party’s national conference in Brighton backed renewing Trident and the mechanisms for deciding policy should be respected:
‘We have it very clear in our constitution our policy making process and that is the National Policy Forum.
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