Corbyn: UK could keep Trident submarines but without warheads

[Onkel Neal]

Corbyn: UK could keep Trident submarines but without warheads

Mr Corbyn is at odds with many of his MPs over the future of the UK nuclear weapons system - which the government has estimated will cost £31bn to renew - and has commissioned a review led by shadow defence secretary Emily Thornberry to look at its future, likely to report in the summer.

The Labour leader has been a longstanding opponent of Trident but some MPs and peers have threatened to resign if Labour reverses its decades-long support for the nuclear deterrent.

Parliament is to hold a vote later this year on whether to proceed with building successor submarines to the existing Vanguard fleet, which is due to become obsolete by the end of the next decade.

Mr Corbyn told the BBC that Trident was a relic from a "Cold War generation" and he did not believe David Cameron would ever contemplate using it.

Asked, in that case, what was the point of having at least one submarine on constant patrol, he said: "They don't have to have warheads on them."

He added: "If anyone uses a nuclear weapon it is catastrophic for the whole globe... There are options there."