This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Labour’s backbench defence committee chairman is to launch an alternative defence review, in a direct challenge to Jeremy Corbyn’s plans to ditch the party’s policy to renew Trident.

John Woodcock will invite MPs to discussions with experts in the field of defence, starting on Tuesday with the former chief of defence staff Admiral Lord Boyce.

It is understood that Woodcock, the MP for Barrow and Furness, intends to invite the parliamentary party to interrogate Boyce over the benefits of Britain retaining its nuclear deterrent.

He has also invited the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) to address MPs and debate with with them.

All the meetings will be recorded and Woodcock intends to feed in to the official defence review currently being led by shadow defence secretary, Emily Thornberry, who is sceptical of the need to renew Trident.

Woodcock, who will stage the meetings every Tuesday, said: “There are a lot of uninformed opinions being aired and so this will be a way for MPs to become more informed ahead of the vote on Trident renewal.

“I will invite those who are against such a decision as well in order for them to be better able to defend Labour’s manifesto commitment to renew our nuclear deterrent.”

Corbyn has floated a possible compromise involving construction of the submarines without nuclear arms on them, which David Cameron mocked in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Corbyn’s spokesman also said Labour no longer had a policy in favour of renewing Trident nuclear submarines because it was under review.

The intervention antagonised pro-Trident Labour MPs. Tom Blenkinsop, the Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, responded at the time: “He can say what he likes, but he doesn’t speak for the party. September 2015 conference set policy and [it] is quite clear.”

The government intends to stage a vote on Trident renewal in the coming months. It is likely that Corbyn will allow a free vote for his shadow cabinet ministers, a number of whom strongly support renewal.

It has been suggested by a number of major figures, including the shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, that they could not serve in a Labour shadow cabinet supporting a policy of unilateral disarmament.