Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Will Corbyn take the nuclear option on Trident?

Jeremy Corbyn’s remarks about Trident have, unsurprisingly, been picked up everywhere this morning. The Labour leader told Andrew Marr yesterday that he could consider a ‘deterrent’ in which submarines continued to patrol the seas, but just without any nuclear warheads. He said the submarines ‘don’t have to have nuclear warheads on them’, adding:

‘There are options there; the paper that Emily Thornberry put forward is a very interesting one, deserves a very good study of it and read of it and I hope there will be a serious mature response to what is a very serious and hopefully mature debate about the nature of security and insecurity, the nature of the way in which we protect ourselves against insecurity and we bring about a more secure world as a result.’


This naturally sparked fury from some pro-nuclear MPs, derision from the Conservatives and the SNP alike, who both want to paint Labour as weak on Trident, albeit from rather different stances themselves.

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