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NATIONALISTS and anti-nuclear campaigners last night condemned a report which claims it is in the UK’s “national interest” to spend £130billion to keep Trident nuclear weapons.

The Trident Commission said holding on to the submarines could stop Britain being open to nuclear blackmail.

A final decision on whether to renew Trident in 2016 at an estimated cost of more than £130billion will be made in 2016.

The huge pricetag comes despite a massive squeeze on spending on public services like schools and hospitals.

The £130billion is more than 20 times the £6billion cost of building the two supercarriers being assembled at Rosyth.

Yesterday, the SNP and Scottish CND said Trident would be scrapped by a vote for

independence.

Alex Salmond has said his party would order nuclear submarines to leave the base at Faslane on the Clyde if Scotland chooses independence.

The decision on replacement has been put back until after the 2015 elections following disagreements between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems.

Tories are committed to replacing the existing four-boat fleet but the Lib Dems say they would only build three submarines.

The SNP have made their opposition to nuclear weapons clear

The Trident Commission is made up of former diplomats and defence experts and was

led by three Scottish politicians.

Two former defence secretaries, Labour’s Des Brown and Conservative Malcolm Rifkind, as well as former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell backed Trident.

The report claims keeping the deterrent would prevent Britain being left open to

nuclear blackmail in the future.

But even many in the military are not convinced it makes sense to replace Trident, which dates back to the Cold War era, given that the most pressing threat to UK security comes from terrorists and governments that do not have nuclear weapons.

SNP defence spokesman Angus Robertson said the only way Scotland could get rid of Trident is to vote Yes on September 18.

He said: “We would certainly not have agreed to the conclusion of the commission.”

Scottish CND criticised the Trident Commission for supporting nuclear weapons.

John Ainslie, Coordinator of Scottish CND, said: “Malcolm Rifkind, Des Browne and Menzies Campbell are stuck in the past.

“The future is in the hands of the people of Scotland.

“We can vote Yes and kick out these indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction”.

The Tories and Labour are committed to renewal of the nuclear deterrent although a Labour government would face a mass rebellion from their MPs on the issue, as they did in 2007 when 88 MPs voted against the idea.

Vernon Coaker, Labour’s shadow defence secretary, said: “Labour is committed to ensuring Britain retains a minimum credible nuclear deterrent, which we believe is best delivered through a continuous at sea deterrent.”

But Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem Treasury Secretary, said that reducing the number of submarines to three would save £4billion.

He said: “The cost of our nuclear deterrent in the future could equal one-fifth of total defence equipment spending. A like-for-like replacement of Trident, deployed in the same way, will unnecessarily stretch budgets and constrain spending on other defence priorities. Something has to give.

“I see nothing in the report that changes my view that our national security would be best served by reducing the submarines to three and ending the policy of continuous at-sea deterrence.”