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Trident will be decommissioned by about 2024
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Chancellor Gordon Brown has come under fire after signalling that he wants to keep and renew Britain's independent nuclear deterrent system. The submarine-based Trident missile system needs replacing by 2024. A replacement could cost up to £25bn. Mr Brown, seen as the most likely next prime minister, signalled his backing in a setpiece City speech on Wednesday. But a number of Labour MPs have already spoken out against the plan. A decision is expected to be taken within a year. Former Tory foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind branded Mr Brown's remarks "shabby". He accused Mr Brown of trying to stifle a debate within the Labour Party and said: "It is not the responsibility of the chancellor in an after dinner speech to announce nuclear policy." 'Long term decision' The issue of Britain's independent nuclear deterrent has always been a controversial one, especially within the Labour Party, which opposed Margaret Thatcher's decision to commission Trident in the 1980s. In his Mansion House speech in the City of London, Mr Brown said Britain would show a "national purpose" in protecting its security. "Strong in defence in fighting terrorism, upholding NATO, supporting our armed forces at home and abroad, and retaining our independent nuclear deterrent," he said. "In an insecure world we must and we will always have the strength to take all necessary long term decisions to ensure both stability and security."
It is thought Mr Brown wants anti-nuclear campaigners to know he is just as committed to replacing Trident as Tony Blair. BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Mr Brown's words would take the heat off the prime minister, who could have produced "uproar" if he had made the same announcement. A decision on Trident is expected to be taken in months rather than years. Kate Hudson, chairwoman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said she was hoping for a full public and Parliamentary debate on the issue. "Our feeling is statements like this from someone as significant as Gordon Brown pre-empts that debate," she said. Statesman's spin? "At this point, when we face no nuclear threat, to decide on a new Trident replacement is beginning a new nuclear arms race," she said. Labour MP Ian Gibson, an opponent of Trident, said many young Labour backbenchers had been weaned on CND and had not lost those early political views. "So it may not be as easy [to agree to replace Trident] as people might think," he told BBC News 24.
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NUCLEAR BRITAIN
October 1952 Britain tests nuclear weapon
May 1957 First UK hydrogen bomb detonated
1958 US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement signed allowing the sharing of nuclear techology
1968 British submarine armed with US-built Polaris missiles goes on patrol for the first time
November 1968 UK ratifies nuclear non-proliferation treaty
1982 Cruise missiles deployed in UK
1993 Trident submarine-based nuclear missile programme comes into use replacing Polaris
Late 2006/ early 2007 Cabinet decision on replacing Trident expected
Around 2010 work on new scheme to replace Trident is expected to begin
2024 Britain's Trident submarines due to be decommissioned
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Another Labour backbencher, Gordon Prentice, asked: "How are we going to persuade other countries not to go for nuclear weapons when we are spending millions of pounds not disarming but upgrading our nuclear weapons?" Keith Sonnet, deputy general secretary of Unison, the country's biggest trade union, also urged Mr Brown to think again. The Conservatives accused Mr Brown of "spin" designed to make him look statesmanlike when he was in fact just repeating Labour's 2005 manifesto. Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Nick Harvey said: "Gordon Brown's posturing on Trident is smothering the national debate that this government promised to the British people." Many Labour MPs have been calling for there to be a full Commons debate and vote before any decision to replace Trident, but Tony Blair, while promising the "fullest possible debate", has stopped short of promising a vote. Asked about calls for MPs to be given a say, Defence Secretary Des Browne said: "The fact that the chancellor is speaking about it in the context of a range of other policy issues is an indication of how transparent we are about this."
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When we face no nuclear threat, to decide on a new Trident replacement is beginning a new nuclear arms race 
