Signatories of letter to Observer, including Young Fathers, Massive Attack and Sir Michael Atiyah, say majority of voters want UK to abandon nuclear arms

Decommissioning Trident nuclear weapons would be popular with voters and supported by a majority of candidates standing in the general election, luminaries from music, the arts and the legal world have claimed.

Despite the two main parties’ insistence last week that they would both renew Britain’s nuclear deterrent, the strategy is described as a relic from the past in a letter published in the Observer.



Among the signatories to the open letter – which suggests that Britain should become the first member of the UN security council to give up nuclear weapons – are comedian Frankie Boyle, Mercury prizewinning band Young Fathers, the former president of the Royal Society, Sir Michael Atiyah, and lawyer and Labour peer Baroness Kennedy. They write: “The election campaign to date suggests that decommissioning Trident nuclear weapons is a dangerous, minority demand led by the SNP, the Greens and Plaid Cymru.

It’s time for Britain to move on from nuclear weapons | letters Read more

“Yet poll after poll reveals that it is indeed a majority popular demand throughout the UK. One poll recently revealed 81% of 500 general election candidates are opposed to renewal.”

Last week Labour furiously denied claims by defence secretary Michael Fallon that Ed Miliband was prepared to “stab Britain in the back”, as it was suggested he had done to his brother David during the 2010 leadership election.



It was claimed that Labour would be willing to abandon Trident to win support from the SNP in the event of a hung parliament. Following the dispute, both the Tories and Labour committed to replace the UK’s fleet of Vanguard-class submarines, which carry the missiles, and maintain “continuous at-sea deterrence” – that is, always having one nuclear-armed vessel on patrol.

However, signatories to the letter, who also include the band Massive Attack, TV presenter Konnie Huq and award-winning novelist Kamila Shamsie, say that nuclear weapons make Britain a target for the disaffected while diverting resources away from “human and social needs”. They write: “We are spending limited resources on expensive illusions that keep us in thrall to the past. Why don’t we switch the funds to safe, economically advantageous green jobs that offer a sustainable, prosperous future?

“Britain should use its capacity for innovation by responding to real human and social needs … Continuing to invest in nuclear weapons is actively depleting military and other effective defences we might need in the 21st century. We should invest military spending on conflict prevention. By moving on from Trident we can more effectively serve the needs and the potential of our country and a changing world.”