CND today said that ‘the government is floundering’ in its attempt to make the case for Trident replacement and is ‘losing confidence’ as questions continue to grow from a broad range of individuals across the political spectrum.
The questions around the cost of the programme are now intersecting with those on the salience of nuclear weapons to national security in a post-Cold War world.
James Arbuthnot, the influential chair of the House of Commons Defence Committee is the latest to announce his concerns about the salience of nuclear weapons , on the same day that Defence Secretary Philip Hammond publishes his latest report on the Trident replacement programme .
Kate Hudson, General Secretary of CND, said:
‘The government is floundering in making the case for Trident replacement, so much so that it is losing the confidence of senior figures within the Coalition.’
‘That James Arbuthnot is prepared to publicly contrast the cuts to conventional forces with the enormous expenditure on Trident means there are real concerns even on the Conservative benches’.
‘The reality is that the economic and strategic arguments for Trident don’t add up. The number of people who think we can waste over £100bn on a weapons system which does nothing to counter the genuine security threats we face are shrinking by the day’.
‘The government may be the last to realise it but it’s time that scrapping Trident and delivering on disarmament was discussed seriously at Westminster’.