SCOTTISH Labour should lead the campaign against the renewal of Trident within the UK party and across the country, its deputy leader said yesterday.
Alex Rowley, who opposes renewal, said he felt conference delegates would vote against replacement when they debate the issue today.
Delegates and unions made Trident a top priority when they chose subjects for the final day of debates, suggesting the motion against renewal will almost certainly pass.
The text describes the nuclear deterrent as a “moral issue” as well a defence one, and says the UK should set an international lead by “not seeking a replacement for Trident and abandoning plans to spend billions on a new generation of nuclear weapons”.
The cost of renewal is put at between £100bn and £167bn.
The motion also calls for the workers who would be affected by Trident’s exit from Faslane to be guaranteed other engineering, science and defence industry jobs.
A vote against renewal would eliminate a key difference with the SNP going into the Holyrood election, but would be deeply awkward for Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, who wants to keep Trident and pursue multilateral disarmament.
Dugdale conspicuously failed to mention the issue in her keynote speech yesterday.
Her predicament is a mirror-image of Jeremy Corbyn’s, who opposes Trident while UK Labour support it.
Rowley told the Sunday Herald the vote on Trident was about “re-democratising the party”.
He said: “It allows us to make the argument within the UK. We will make the case [against renewal] right across the UK within the Labour party.
“Too many MPs look at polls on this issue and believe public opinion is in favour or renewal.
“It probably is, but that’s because there’s been no debate about it, and people believe the fear stories that without a deterrent we would be at risk.”
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