The defence of our free country is the first duty of any Government.
One of the more serious votes in Parliament last week was on the renewal of the United Kingdom’s Trident independent nuclear deterrent.
I voted in favour of its renewal – we cannot predict the threats that we will, as a country, face in the future.
Our deterrent plays a vital part in defending our democratic nation and allies.
North Korea, for example, does not respect such a way of life; and is in clear violation of UN Security Council Resolutions. It is the only country in the world which has tested nuclear weapons this century, and has conducted a space launch using ballistic missile technology.
Most did not predict the collapse of the Soviet Union or the rise of terror regimes, therefore, we cannot be certain of future threats. Definitely not sure enough to give up our deterrent.
The four new submarines – so we have continuous cover – are estimated to cost £31 billion to build, with additional contingency costs of £10 billion. This will be spread over a 35 year period; the Prime Minister recently told MPs this adds up to 0.2% of annual Government spending.
An argument for those who oppose the renewal sometimes talk of removing our deterrent in the interests of solidarity with our friends around the world. Such an idea would not lead to less scrupulous countries – and potentially other actors – who hate our way of life from giving up theirs.
How would giving up the deterrent make us safer? By not standing together with our allies, it would only cause them to question our commitment to standing up for what is right.
Our being a nuclear power means the British are a force for good globally – we almost certainly would not be one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council without our deterrent.
The United Kingdom has around one per cent of the 17,000 nuclear weapons on the planet. In an ideal world, we would remove the deterrent – of course, in an ideal world, we would not need one at all.
We all want a world free of nuclear weapons; the point of difference is on how we get there.