Full nuclear weapons debate urged by Lib Dems

4.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 29th Jun 2006

Gordon Brown has given his support for maintaining Britain as a nuclear power, angering some on the Labour left. Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Nick Harvey said "We are rushing headlong into a decision on nuclear weapons which should be considered over a much longer timescale."

The Commons defence committee agrees. Their latest report says "The public debate must now begin in earnest. There needs to be a "genuine and meaningful" public debate on whether the UK should keep its nuclear weapons. The Committees MPs say the arsenal "could serve no useful or practical purpose" in defeating international terrorism. This is "the most pressing threat currently facing the UK".

The committee said the Ministry of Defence must justify the retention of weapons after hearing no evidence of an impending military threat from other countries. "If the MoD believes in the value of the nuclear deterrent as an insurance policy, rather than in response to any specific threat, we believe it is important to say clearly that is the reason for needing the deterrent". The government should also clarify whether it believed the nuclear deterrent was important to Britain's "international influence and status. We accept that future threats are unknowable, but, clearly, a world in which nuclear proliferation had taken hold would create deep uncertainties in international relations."

Britain has four nuclear-powered submarines, each of which can carry up to 16 Trident II D5 missiles. Every missile can hold 12 nuclear warheads and one of the submarines is always at sea at any time. The four Trident missile submarines are expected to end their operational life sometime in the mid 2020s and the 48 warheads have a similar operational time-frame.