Trident cost spirals to £40bn while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn urged to make decision on renewal vote

THE COST of Britain’s nuclear submarine programme Trident has soared to £40bn the Prime Minister has confirmed, as Labour are urged to come up with a response to renewing the scheme by one of their own MPs. David Cameron announced that four new submarines with up to 40 nuclear warheads will be commissioned after the ageing Vanguard class are retired from service in the 2030s.

By Kate Proctor, Westminster Correspondent Monday, 23rd November 2015, 8:00 pm

The Royal Navy's 16,000 ton Trident-class nuclear submarine Vanguard photographed in 2002. PA Wire

The new class will be known as Successor, and forms part of the Government’s first National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) in five years.

The new estimated cost is £31bn, which is £6bn more than a previous estimate of £25bn, and another £10bn has been added as a contingency cost.

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The Government’s SDSR dossier stated that the ‘revised cost’ is due to more detail emerging about how they will be manufactured.

The announcement confirms the Government’s commitment to a continuous ‘at-sea’ nuclear deterrent patrol, and it also sets out how young people need to have the right skills to work for the Royal Navy, the Ministry of Defence or suppliers in the future.

The report said better ‘cross-sector’ nuclear career paths must be established within the coming years.

The announcement focuses attention once again on a vote on renewing the Trident programnme in the House of Commons and long-standing anti-nuclear weapons campaigner and Leeds North East MP Fabian Hamilton said a unified response from the Labour leadership was urgently needed.

Leader Jeremy Corbyn is current vice-president for the Campaign of Nuclear Disarmament, and Mr Hamilton said the best he could do now is allow Labour MPs to ‘have a free vote’ when it is eventually tabled in the Commons by the Government.

He said: “The party is going to have to decide where it’s going on this but there are people who will never vote for this.”

Tomorrow, Mr Corbyn chairs a meeting of the shadow cabinet, and it’s hoped a concrete stance will emerge on how the party will deal with a vote when it emerges.

Mr Hamilton, who sat on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee for a decade, said the Labour leader would never change his mind on an issue he’s dedicated his life to campaigning against.

He said: “There’s no chance of him doing that, because he’s got too much invested in it. He was chair of CND. I just can’t see why he would do it. It’s very unlikely. The only thing he might consider doing is allowing Labour MPs a free vote which is possible.”

David Cameron said in the House of Commons yesterday, “obviously at the appropriate moment, we’ll want to have a vote in this House” and subsequently “I’m very keen that we have a vote.”

Mr Hamilton said the eventual cost of Trident will be far more than the quoted £40bn manufacture cost, when maintenance and decommissioning of the old submarines is included.

He added that any inference the submarines offer greater security against the changing security landscape is also a false hope.

He said: “Do you think that four Trident submarines would help us against the Paris attacks?

“The terrorists didn’t think twice about attacking Paris, and France has a nuclear deterrent.”

“I would rather see the money spent on security services and getting quality intelligence - it is worth a lot more.”