THE SNP conference is today poised to back a three-year deadline for axing Trident from the Clyde following the establishment of an independent Scottish Government.
The resolution is expected to be supported overwhelmingly by the party and follows the dropping from the event’s final agenda of an amendment which instead called for practical work to start on removing the nuclear weapons from Scotland “within three years.”
Bill Kidd, the SNP MSP for Glasgow Anniesland, is due to lead the debate and last night called for delegates to back the motion.
He told the Sunday National: “Having met with survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki and also those from nuclear weapons test sites around the world, I would say that it’s a moral duty on the SNP to speak out against nuclear arms now – and to ensure that these disgusting weapons of mass-murder are removed from Scotland as quickly and safely as possible on our achieving independence – this can be done within three years.”
Nicola Sturgeon’s Glasgow southside branch put down the resolution which is to be debated this afternoon.
READ MORE: CND warn SNP conference delegates not to let indy Scotland get stuck with Trident
A motion put forward by SNP CND (party members who are also in CND) set out the steps for the removal of Trident was passed unanimously at the SNP conference in Edinburgh two years ago. However, the 2019 proposal did not include a timescale for the policy to be implemented.
“Conference notes the endorsement of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons by all SNP candidates in the 2021 Scottish Parliament Election,”the new motion states. “Consequently, and in line with the provisions of the TPNW, conference calls upon a future SNP Government of an Independent Scotland to remove nuclear weapons from Scotland within three years.”
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) became a formal UN international treaty when it entered into force in January 2021.
The Treaty has specific provisions for states which have the nuclear weapons of another state on its territory.
Any state that ratifies the Treaty is obliged to present plans for the removal of these weapons as soon as possible.
Such a state will, under the provisions of the TPNW, be afforded the assistance of the relevant agencies of the United Nations, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, in removing the weapons under international supervision.
The state who actually owns the nuclear weapons would also be involved in the process.
The amendment to the motion was dropped after the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) warned the SNP that Scotland could face being stuck with Trident unless the party set a fixed deadline post-independence to remove it.
In a major intervention the organisation called for conference delegates to back a scrapped the weapons within three years of independence.
It feared that if a three-year deadline is not fixed a newly independent Scotland could end up indefinitely delaying Trident’s removal amid negotiations with the UK.
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