Tories may not renew Trident

David Davis, former shadow home secretaryDavid Davis, former shadow home secretary

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Thursday, 30, Apr 2009 12:00

By politics.co.uk staff

There are growing signs the Tories may not renew the Trident nuclear defence if they attain power.

 

In a comment piece for the Financial Times today, former shadow home secretary and chairman of the public accounts committee David Davis said it was time the Tories looked at their own 'sacred cows'.

 

"There is no firmer advocate of nuclear deterrence than me, but even I have some difficulty seeing the justification for a wholesale upgrade of Trident,” he wrote.

“Our system was designed to maintain retaliatory capacity after a full-scale Soviet nuclear onslaught. Now our likeliest nuclear adversary will be a much smaller, less-sophisticated state. Should not the costs reflect that?"

During his monthly press conference today, party leader David Cameron refused to rule out the possibility.

“I'm not going to start ruling things in and out,” he said when repeatedly asked about the deterrent.

In his article, Mr Davis suggests several ways in which a Tory administration might make savings, given the dire state of the public purse.

Many of the suggestions are already party policy, such as abolishing ID cards.

“The choice we face is not between Labour growth in public services and Tory 'cuts',” he said.

“It is between taking a grip of the public finances and watching our people’s economic prospects, and our ability to afford decent public services, slowly dribble away."

Among Mr Davies suggestions are: a pay and recruitment freeze for the entire public sector, cancelling bonuses for civil servants, cutbacks in MPs' pay, closing public sector pension schemes to new entrants, targeting child benefits to only the less well-off and renegotiating PFI contracts.

What do you think?

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User comments...

  • "Strange how with the elections looming the conservative have found ways of saving the 'public purse'I do not believe them any more than i did about the referendum on the EU, which they will still not commit to! even when all the polls are showing that 82% of the British people want a referendum ,and indeed the latest gov poll shows 55% want out! so how are we expected to believe anything they say? the only options now for members of all parties is to lend ukip your vote and at least give yourselves time to appraise the so called benefits (or losses) of the EU for yourselves, there are many who would prove to you it is a costly venture that only the politicians can gain from. better to do something than nothing!"

    Molly Bennett (Southampton) Posted: 30/04/2009 19:42:48

  • "It is unacceptably risky to scrap or even ‘downgrade’ our nuclear deterrent, especially in these uncertain times. The whole point of Trident is that it offers a minimum effective deterrent – whether that be against a “full-scale Soviet nuclear onslaught” or a terrorist planted improvised nuclear device. The Trident weapon system is incredibly flexible, having the ability to deliver a very small yield single warhead strike to a rogue nation or a massive retaliatory strike with multiple warheads against a sophisticated nuclear aggressor. We ditched our freefall bomb system in the early 90’s leaving Trident as our sole deterrent. We must keep it until that utopian day when every nation agrees to multilateral disarmament. After being invaded twice last century, I hardly think the French will be scrapping their deterrent anytime soon! "

    Paul (Swindon) Posted: 03/05/2009 17:35:37

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