The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has said he intends to work with the SNP to remove nuclear weapons from Scotland.
Reaffirming his long-standing opposition to Trident in a BBC Scotland interview, Corbyn said: “In the House of Commons I was chair of the CND [Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament] group and one of the vice-chairs is from the SNP, and yes, we will be voting with them on this – or they will be voting with us, whichever way you want to put it.”
Giving an in-depth interview on Scottish concerns in advance of his first party conference as leader, he said: “My position on Trident has been very clear all of my life,” he said. “I think Trident should go. I do not believe that it is a form of defence.
“I do not believe it is something that anyone in their proper mind would ever want to use, so I ask the question is it really sensible to commit such a vast proportion of our assets – £100bn over 25 years – to this when we could be spending it on developing our industrial infrastructure?”
The SNP welcomed Corbyn’s comments, but the party’s defence spokesperson, Brendan O’Hara, said: “The real test will be at his party conference next week when Labour’s deep divisions over the matter will be laid bare.
“The pressure will be on the Labour party to clarify their position and whether or not they support their leader and whether they will work with the SNP in opposing spending £100bn on Trident’s replacement.”
O’Hara noted that both Maria Eagle, the shadow defence secretary, and Hillary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary, oppose Corbyn’s views on Trident, as does the leader of Scottish Labour, Kezia Dugdale.
Corbyn is expected to visit Scotland for the first time since his election at the end of next week, and said that his priority was to rebuild support for the party there. “For the moment what we are doing is building Labour support in Scotland and it is going very well,” he said. “We have recruited a lot of members to the party in Scotland.”
