Eddie Mair scrutinises Lisa Nandy over Labour's 'inconsistent' Trident stance
16 March 2021, 19:41
Labour is committed to retaining Trident, says Lisa Nandy
Labour's Shadow Foreign Secretary faced a grilling on LBC over her conflicted stance on the UK's nuclear weapons.
Lisa Nandy last year said she would only support renewing Trident, an arsenal of submarines fitted with nuclear missiles, if the Government showed it was committed to disarmament in the coming years.
Despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday confirmed the UK would in fact be increasing its arsenal in the face of new threats, she told LBC's Eddie Mair that she would still vote to renew the programme.
"I've always supported renewing Trident if it were coupled with a strong commitment to multilateral disarmament," Ms Nandy said.
"You see no such commitment [to disarmament] but still support it?" Eddie asked.
She replied: "We've seen this bizarre entry into the Integrated Review today, which I must say is symptomatic of the inconsistencies that document is riddled with.
"The Government says it is committed to international law, it wants to see others uphold it - the US has just re-signed the New Start treaty with Russia which has started to set the world on a path to be able to reduce the threat from nuclear weapons."
Eddie pushed Ms Nandy on the "inconsistency of your own position", pointing out how she would still support renewing Trident despite the ministers crossing a red line she had set.
"We had that vote in 2016 and that matter was settled," she replied.
"I want to be clear to you that our commitment to retaining Trident is non-negotiable - we have said as a party, consistently, even in recent years, that is non-negotiable."
