JEREMY Corbyn has highlighted the danger posed by the UK’s Trident nuclear submarines – including having them based in Scotland.
The former Labour leader said there is “no defence” for nuclear weapons, adding that his dissent from supporting their presence and potential use is “well-known” – including a pledge in 2015 that, if he were to become prime minister, he would never use them.
On the subject of the UK’s nuclear arsenal, which is hosted in Scotland at HM Naval Base Clyde, Corbyn said it put a “target” on the city of Glasgow.
“Faslane is within sight of the wonderful city of Glasgow. Inevitably, that makes it a target,” he said.
“Now, there is no hiding place from a nuclear conflict, but the intensity of a nuclear conflict obviously gets worse, the nearer you are to the epicenter of it.”
The MP for Islington North has recently expressed alarm at the heightened nuclear tensions surrounding the war in Ukraine.
Last month, Vladimir Putin lowered the threshold for nuclear weapons on the 1000th day of the Ukraine war, a day after the US gave the war-torn nation permission to use its long-range weaponry to fire into Russia.
The Russian president signed a revised nuclear doctrine declaring that a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country.
UK missiles have also since been fired into Russia for the first time.
“We just need to be real about the dangers of nuclear weapons and the dangers of the whole Ukraine conflict spiraling completely out of control,” Corbyn said.
“This is a very dangerous time. We have to stop the whole idea of there ever being a nuclear conflict.”
Corbyn highlighted the next review conference for the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) at the United Nations in May 2025 and said he hopes the UK Government will attend – adding that they are currently in breach of the treaty.
On the subject of the war in Ukraine, he said that, firstly, “Russia is wrong to invade ukraine, end of.”
“I'm quite clear about that,” Corbyn added.
“I'm also quite clear that there's a ghastly war going on where conscripted soldiers from one side are killing conscripted soldiers from another side. Almost like the First World War.
“There has to be a way out of it.”
Corbyn went on: “A number of countries have apparently offered to host diplomatic ways forward – a military ceasefire and a whole range of options – all of which were on the table in April 2023, but Boris Johnson rejected them in their entirety.
“The African Union and Latin American leaders have done their best to try to bring about some kind of ceasefire and I notice the language has changed a bit by Russia to some extent, by Zelensky by some extent, and the USA to some extent. But Europe, particularly Germany and Britain, are ramping it up by saying they're going to put more and more weapons in there.
“I would like to think they're going to put much more energy into creating the circumstances in which we can get a ceasefire and then have some serious negotiations about the future status of the Donbass and the military role of both Russia and NATO in the region and create some kind of safety zone.”
Corbyn said there are “ways it could be done”, adding: “We cannot go on just being spectators in this war.
“And in the case of the UK, we're now putting a billion pounds a year into Ukraine's military activities.
“Is that going to carry on forever?”
