THE UK’s Defence Secretary has said Labour will not be “shy” of using nuclear weapons as tensions with Russia escalate.
John Healey’s comments came after he and the Prime Minister visited a nuclear submarine as it returned to Faslane following a record-breaking 204-day patrol at sea – almost seven months.
The UK’s Vanguard-class nuclear submarines all came into service in the 1990s with 25-year initial lifespans. The aging fleet means submarines are being forced into longer and longer patrols carrying greater and greater risks. At first, three months was the standard patrol time.
Three of the Dreadnought-class submarines which will replace the UK’s fleet are currently being built, with the first expected to be delivered in the early 2030s.
On Thursday, the UK Government announced that Starmer and Defence Secretary John Healey had visited the submarine at Faslane and the new submarines being built at Barrow to show support for nuclear weaponry.
In an interview with The Times, Healey said the UK would not be shy of using them.
“We take [Russian despot Vladimir] Putin seriously, we take his rhetoric seriously, but we recognise that he is fond of using nuclear rhetoric,” the Defence Secretary said.
“We should not fight shy of the fact we are a nuclear power, that we do have an independent nuclear deterrent.”
He added: “Our nuclear deterrent is there as a deterrent. It is the ultimate guarantor to any would-be adversary.
“We have the power to do untold damage to them if they attack us.”
Healey further claimed that “we are sometimes very British about our nuclear deterrent” – adding that although “silent [and] hidden”, they work “every minute of every day to keep us safe and we should be clear, strong and confident and proud of that”.
Responding to the comments on social media, Labour grandee Diane Abbott said: “If Putin or Lavrov had said this about Britain there would be uproar.
“After a while this type of macho posturing becomes genuinely dangerous.”
Sergey Lavrov is Putin’s foreign minister and a political giant in Russia, having held the post for more than two decades.
It reported that Russia has the largest nuclear stockpile on earth, with 5449 nuclear warheads, 4299 of which are ready for use. The UK, in comparison, has 225 nuclear warheads, all of which are available for use.
On Thursday, the UK Government said its nuclear weaponry was “essential” and would remain so “for as long as the global security environment demands”.
Under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, to which the UK and Russia are both signatories, both nations need to engage in efforts to work towards complete nuclear disarmament.
However, experts have said that the UK is ignoring its obligations under the treaty – and Russia is widely considered to act without regard for repeatedly breached international laws.
