JEREMY Corbyn’s authority over his party appeared severely undermined last night when it emerged a key debate on Trident expected to take place this week at the Labour conference will not now go ahead.
Motions on the subject were not approved by delegates yesterday, raising fresh concerns that the newly-elected Labour leader will be unable to deliver on his commitment to scrap the renewal of the £100 billion nuclear weapons system.
“Jeremy Corbyn’s entire credibility is on the line as Labour become mired in confusion on Trident,” said Stewart Hosie, the depute leader of the SNP, which is also opposed to renewal. “So many of the people who backed him did so on the basis of his anti-Trident stance – now, barely two weeks into the job, it appears he’s shying away from the debate.”
Hosie added: “If Jeremy Corbyn cannot change Labour’s position on Trident, he will either have to vote in favour of Trident renewal against his own long-held views, or we will be faced with the farcical situation of the Labour leader defying his own party whip.”
A number of constituency parties had tabled motions calling for Trident to be scrapped, but they did not have enough support from delegates to be debated at conference.
Responding to the news Trident would not be debated, Corbyn said: “This is an open and democratic party and the members at conference have decided to discuss the issues that they want to debate this week.”
Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn and shadow justice secretary Lord Falconer have both spoken out against abandoning the Trident system, and Corbyn said “we are going to come to an accommodation”.
Hinting that the Labour vote might not be whipped when Parliament decides, he told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show: “We are going to have to discuss it and debate it and come to a philosophical solution to it. But I understand colleagues’ views.
“I hope to persuade them that a nuclear-free world is a good thing, that fulfilling our obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and promoting a nuclear weapons convention is a good thing. They are all signed up to multilateral disarmament, by the way.
“There are many people, military thinkers, who are very concerned, indeed opposed, to Trident because they don’t see it as part of modern security or defence. They don’t see any situation in which Trident would become an option you would think about using.
Corbyn said it would not be “a disaster” if there were different opinions in the party, but added: “I will do my persuasive best to bring them around to my view.”
Former leadership contender Chuka Umunna, who ruled out serving in the shadow cabinet because of differences with Corbyn over issues including Trident, said the party would have to fix its position on such key policies.
“It’s not plausible for us as an opposition not to have a position on the defence of the realm,” Umunna told a fringe meeting.
CND expressed “surprise and disappointment” at Labour’s failure to include a debate.
Its general secretary Kate Hudson said: “The issue of Trident will not go away. Sooner or later Labour must have this debate and bring its policy into the 21st century. At the moment Labour has its head in the sand of an outdated, overpriced Cold War nuclear weapons policy.”
Leaders of the biggest trade unions have said they would oppose moves to scrap Trident.
Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, which has thousands of members in the defence industry, said his main focus was the protection of jobs, while the GMB said it was “pleased there is no threat to the tens of thousands of workers in the defence sector.”
The UK Government is set to make a decision on whether to renew Trident early next year.
Letters to The National, September 28: Trident vote will test Corbyn’s credibility
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