Katy Balls Katy Balls

Trident renewal vote blows up in the government’s face

Unusually for the Conservatives they’ve become engulfed in a row over Trident. The Sunday Times reported that a dummy Trident missile had misfired in a test in June and veered towards the US, rather than Africa.

After Theresa May refused to say four times on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday morning whether she had known of the reported malfunction when she told MPs the nuclear deterrent should be renewed, the row rumbled on today. No.10 announced that the Prime Minister had been aware of the Trident missile test that reportedly misfired, but left it to Michael Fallon to attempt to hose down the mess this afternoon as he faced MPs in the Commons.

Answering an urgent question from Kevan Jones, the Defence Secretary struck an unapologetic tone — describing the ‘demonstration and shake down’ test in question as a ‘success’.

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in