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Friday’s visit by Labour leader Keir Starmer and Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey to the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard says it all about a future Labour government’s intentions: no divergence from existing Tory policy while the population and economy continues to suffer.
The pair are expected to reaffirm the Labour party’s commitment to nuclear weapons and the outrageous costs associated with the replacement of the current Trident system – estimated to cost in excess of £205 billion.
Starmer is also expected to state that Labour’s commitment to so-called nuclear deterrence is total. That commitment should go the way of a number of Labour pledges that shouldn’t have been abandoned: like its £28 billion-a-year green investment pledge. The money saved from scrapping nuclear weapons could foot the bill for so many genuine essentials.
CND General Secretary Kate Hudson said:
“After 14 years of Tory misrule and an election looming, voters are desperately looking for hope from the Labour party. However, it’s increasingly clear that Starmer’s offer is just more of the same: billions of pounds wasted on nuclear weapons and nuclear power, and a belligerent foreign policy that includes support for the AUKUS pact, NATO, and continuing arms sales to Israel, used to kill Palestinians.
“Putting billions of pounds into the pockets of arms companies and their investors will not reinvigorate the economy in any meaningful way. Instead, it takes vital funds and skills away from what could be spent on the just transition: like energy efficient homes, better public transport, and a public health service that saves lives and heals people.
Nuclear weapons don’t keep the country safe. By committing to the modernisation and expansion of Britain’s nuclear arsenal Labour is contributing to the global arms race and tensions that we are currently seeing. If the party wanted to truly offer a positive option to the electorate, it would commit to scrapping Trident and its replacement, and put nuclear disarmament at the forefront of its foreign policy agenda.”
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