KEIR Starmer’s claim that it is more important than ever to support nuclear weaponry has been branded “absolutely ludicrous” by a leading global campaigner.
Melissa Parke, the chief executive of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), spoke against the UK Prime Minister’s remarks while at a summit on banning nuclear weaponry.
Delegates from some 100 nations – as well as numerous campaign groups and parliamentarians – gathered at the UN in New York on Monday for the first day of a summit on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
The TPNW – which ICAN won the Nobel Peace Prize for its role in arranging in 2017 – bans the use, possession, testing, or transfer of nuclear weapons for state signatories. The UK has not signed, although Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said he would push the Labour Government to attend the UN summit as an observer.
However, as the majority of the countries in the world gathered to discuss actions towards complete nuclear disarmament, Starmer told the Commons that moving against the weaponry was “wrong-headed”.
The Labour leader had apparently been referencing comments from First Minister John Swinney, who last week argued that a focus on nuclear weapons was an “inhibitor” to combating current military challenges due to the “resources they command” – and called for the funding allocated to renewing Trident to instead be invested in “conventional weaponry”.
Speaking in reply to SNP MP Stephen Flynn, the Prime Minister said: “I was somewhat concerned that the SNP is continuing its suggestion that now is the time to abandon the nuclear deterrent.
“If ever there was a time to reaffirm support for the nuclear deterrent, it is now.”
Speaking to The National from the UN, Parke dismissed the Prime Minister’s comments as “absolutely ludicrous”.
“We should be looking, in this time of heightening tension and confrontation, we should be looking at de-escalatory rhetoric and actions, not escalatory rhetoric and actions,” she said.
“That goes not just for the UK but all across Europe, where we're hearing increasing talk about developing further nuclear weapons for themselves. That's wrongheaded.
“It's just a recipe for increasing confrontation and proliferation, which can only lead to global annihilation.”
Parke told The National: “We've got to go in the other direction. Diplomacy, dialogue, disarmament. That's the direction we need to head in.
“So, I'm sorry Mr Starmer, but you're going the wrong way.”
Scottish Secretary Murray is among the signatories to the ICAN pledge which asks parliamentarians to agree to push their governments to sign the TPNW.
The UK has only signed the older Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which prevents states from newly acquiring nuclear weapons but does not oblige nuclear states to disarm.
