Trident renewal: Labour figures play down Scottish vote

Senior Labour figures at Westminster have sought to play down the significance of a vote by the Scottish party to scrap Trident.

Scottish Labour voted overwhelmingly at its conference in Perth to support a motion not to renew the nuclear weapons.

The position has been backed by the party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

But shadow defence secretary Maria Eagle told the BBC the vote was no more than a contribution to the debate.

She said: "This is an input from Scottish Labour into the policy-making process.

"This does not change our policy. Defence is not a devolved matter and Labour party policy has to be set at a UK level.

"I am conducting a review that will be a serious one, that will be based on evidence, it will have extensive consultation and will be taking views from across the Labour movement and Labour voters."

It is understood that Labour's review of defence policy is unlikely to be concluded before parliament votes on Trident renewal - possibly early next year.

Sources have said that any change of policy on Trident, which is based at the Faslane submarine base on the Clyde, would take up to two years to complete.

This means Labour's official position would still be to support Trident in the Commons vote, even though Mr Corbyn is opposed to such a move.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, who supports multilateral disarmament, watched as a motion opposing the renewal of nuclear weapons won just over 70% of the vote at the conference.

The vote means that Mr Corbyn and Ms Dugdale have different views on the issue from each other and from their own parties.

Mr Corbyn's spokesman welcomed the Scottish vote as "a clear sign that Labour's democracy has opened up."

He said the decision would "feed into the wider UK Labour debate and review of defence policy."

Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Babcock Marine Clyde industrial shop stewards committee at Faslane and the neighbouring Coulport facility cast doubt on claims that jobs at the bases could be saved through diversification if Trident is not renewed.

The statement said: "Those that choose to perpetuate the myth of diversification would be as well telling us to apply for jobs in Brigadoon. This utopian land of employment that these people would have us believe exists is no more than a jobs mirage."

It also said that the committee was "dismayed and angered" by Unite Scotland`s position after the union's leadership backed the calls for Trident to be scrapped.

The committee said: "It is not supportive of our membership, and members have expressed the feeling this morning that their union is treating them like mugs by taking their union subscriptions and failing to support their future livelihoods."

In the conference debate, Unite's senior Scottish official Pat Rafferty argued that the UK should take a lead on nuclear non-proliferation and use the money saved from scrapping Trident to make defence diversification work.

The GMB union accused Scottish Labour of "Alice in Wonderland" politics over its vote.

The union said Scottish Labour needed to "get real" over the 40,000 defence jobs that it said would be at risk, and said it would not "play politics" with defence workers jobs.

The Scottish Conservatives have staged a "day of action" in Helensburgh, near the Faslane base, which it said was aimed at "backing Faslane's future and standing-up for strong UK defence".

The party said there were currently 6,500 military and civilian jobs at Faslane, with the figure set to increase to more than 8,000 by 2022.

The Scottish government will hold a debate on Trident at Holyrood on Tuesday.

The SNP, which has pledged to remove nuclear weapons from Scottish waters, has described Labour as "hopelessly divided" on issues such as Trident.

SNP MSP Bill Kidd said: "We welcome Scottish Labour's conference vote opposing the renewal of Trident - but the truth is that unless they can convince their colleagues at Westminster to vote against renewal in the House of Commons, their decision will be utterly meaningless.

"The fact that their shadow defence secretary has now said that the renewal of Trident is nothing to do with the Scottish Labour party and that the Scottish conference vote therefore 'does not change' the party's policy simply reflects the reality that the Scottish party cannot dictate UK Labour policy."

Conservative leader and Prime Minister David Cameron has always maintained the UK needs to keep its nuclear weapons, calling it as "insurance policy" against attacks. Replacing Trident was a Tory manifesto pledge in the general election.

Labour has supported Trident renewal, saying it has been a "cornerstone" of peace and security for nearly 50 years - but that policy is now in doubt after the election of long-time opponent Jeremy Corbyn as party leader. He says the issue will form part of their defence review, but has also said that even if there were a replacement system, he would never use them as PM.

The SNP, which now has 55 MPs in the House of Commons, opposes Trident renewal. During the election campaign it described Trident as "unusable and indefensible - and the plans to renew it are ludicrous on both defence and financial grounds".

The Lib Dems, who insisted on no final decision being taken while they were in coalition, have always been sceptical about a like-for-like replacement and insisted on a value for money review. They back a "step down the nuclear ladder" with a smaller nuclear weapons system providing a "minimal yet credible" deterrent.

Read more about Trident renewal here