BBC: MPs are set to decide on whether to renew Britain’s nuclear weapons programme in a Commons vote later.
In her first statement to parliament as prime minister, Theresa May will say it would be a “gross irresponsibility” for the UK to abandon its nuclear weapons.
Labour is split, with Jeremy Corbyn opposing renewal, but the party’s MPs will get a free vote on the issue.
The SNP – which will oppose Trident renewal – had called for the vote to be delayed to allow “proper scrutiny”.
The government is expected to win the vote, which will decide whether to press ahead with the manufacture of the next generation of nuclear submarines.
Opening the debate, Mrs May will emphasise her strong commitment to the plan, saying: “We cannot abandon our ultimate safeguard out of misplaced idealism. That would be a reckless gamble.”
“The nuclear threat has not gone away. If anything, it has increased,” she will add.
What is Trident for?
Since 1969, according to government documents, a British submarine carrying nuclear weapons has always been on patrol, gliding silently beneath the waves, somewhere in the world’s oceans.
The logic is to deter a nuclear attack on the UK because, even if the nation’s conventional defence capabilities were destroyed, the silent submarine would still be able to launch a catastrophic retaliatory strike on the aggressor, a concept known as mutually assured destruction.
The submarines, based at Faslane on the River Clyde, carry up to eight Trident missiles; each can be fitted with a number of warheads.
Labour is split on the issue of Trident, particularly following the election of leader Jeremy Corbyn, a life-long opponent of nuclear weapons.
He is at odds with many of his MPs over the future of the UK nuclear weapons system – which the government has estimated will cost £31bn to renew – and has commissioned a review led by shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry to look at its future.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said he would be voting against the government because he “cannot support a weapon of mass destruction”, urging Labour MPs to “respect each other’s views”.
Labour deputy leader Tom Watson told the BBC he would vote in favour of renewal, saying he thought it was “unacceptable” for MPs to abstain.
“Now the government have made us take another vote on this, you cannot absolve yourself of responsibility for making a decision,” he said.
He also warned that to oppose Trident would threaten security and cost jobs.
But Ms Thornberry told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she will abstain from the vote “because frankly the Tory government is playing games with us”.
“It will make no difference to what the government does, the government is proceeding with it in any event,” she said.
“This vote, in the last week of Parliament, is all about playing games with the Labour Party and trying to embarrass us.”
But Defence Secretary Michael Fallon denied the vote was politically-motivated, saying the government was seeking Parliament’s backing so it could get on with the renewal project and give confidence to the supply chain.
The estimated cost has risen in recent years, but Mr Fallon said a new delivery body would ensure the submarines were delivered “on time and on budget”, saying the £31bn bill had to be against their 30-year lifespan.
Labour leadership hopeful Owen Smith, a former member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), said he would back renewal, saying he believed the world had become “more volatile, more insecure over the last few years”.
Meanwhile, SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson said Trident “was an immoral, obscene and redundant weapons system”.
“The vote on Trident is one of the most important this parliament will ever take,” he said. “For the Tories to commit to spend hundreds of billions of pounds on weapons of mass destruction – particularly at a time when they are making significant cuts to public services – would be both morally and economically indefensible.”
