THE Scottish Labour Party conference yesterday voted overwhelmingly against the renewal of the UK’s Trident nuclear missile system.
After a heated debate, delegates voted by 70%-30% for a motion supported by UK leader Jeremy Corbyn on the last day of the Scottish party’s conference in Perth. Labour as a whole currently backs replacing the country’s nuclear deterrent, which is based at Faslane on the Clyde.
Corbyn’s backing for unilateral disarmament puts him at odds with Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, who instead supports the removal of nuclear weapons on a multilateral basis. Scottish activists made Trident a priority issue for a policy vote at the conference after it received the most votes of the 17 issues proposed for debate.
Currently trade unions hold 50% of the votes at conference, with the remaining half coming from the Scottish party’s 73 constituency parties. GMB and Unison delegates took opposing views on the continuation of Trident, while high-profile MSPs including Neil Findlay and Jackie Baillie were also split on the controversial issue.
Opening yesterday’s debate, Stephen Low, of Unison and Glasgow Southside Constituency Labour Party, said that Trident ‘is something that we do not need and cannot afford’. He said: ‘Its purpose is to detonate a nuclear warhead above a city, killing everyone in its radius. There are other facts about Trident, but that’s the central one, and one we should never forget.’
Low told delegates that the UK was not the target of countries such as Russia or China. He added: ‘We shouldn’t want Trident’s renewal even if it were free, but of course it is not free, it comes at an utterly bewildering cost.’ Low said Trident was the ‘real threat’ to defence jobs because the cost of renewal is so huge that it will lead to cutbacks in conventional defence spending. He concluded: ‘This is a life and death decision. Conference, let’s choose life, let’s choose to be the change we want to see in the world, let’s cancel Trident renewal.’
Opposing the motion Gary Smith of GMB said: ‘We are told that the motion recognises the importance of jobs, but the fact is that is utterly disingenuous.’ He said the motion contained no detail about future employment opportunities and pay and conditions. He claimed: ‘This debate is a nonsense, and frankly it is an utter indulgence.’
He added: ‘I stand here in defence of workers up and down this country who have a stake in Trident.’ He said the GMB would be voting ‘against a motion which represents Alice in Wonderland politics and pie in the sky jobs’.
MSP Findlay, who opposes nuclear weapons, told delegates: ‘In this debate, the workforce is key, and we have to give reassurance to the engineers, the technicians, the fabricators and the small business owners that we have a real and genuine plan to create jobs for every worker. If we do that then I am absolutely convinced we will win this argument.’
Davina Rankin from Unison told delegates there was no military argument for it and no moral case.
Pat Rafferty, from Unite, which represents Faslane workers, said Trident cannot protect the UK from ISIS or cyberwarfare. He said Britain should take the lead in nuclear non-proliferation.
Rafferty said the argument for non-renewal must go ‘hand in hand’ with a jobs diversification plan and the billions saved from Trident could help workers and be used against a ‘crisis’ in industry and the public sector.
MSP Jackie Baillie, whose Dumbarton constituency includes Faslane, said ‘13,000 quality, well-paid jobs’ relied on the naval base. She attacked the ‘Nimbyism on a national scale’ of the SNP wanting to move Trident to England. We will deal with reality not rhetoric,’ she said.
South of Scotland region MSP Claudia Beamish told delegates there was a firm commitment to protect defence workers’ jobs regardless of Trident renewal.
