With Labour Party Conference just weeks away, Labour CND is asking supporters to put forward our recommended Contemporary Motion, calling for increased accountability and debate on Britain’s nuclear weapons policy.
With the number of nuclear warheads in the UK stockpile no only published and no accountability on the decision to return US nuclear weapons to the UK at RAF Lakenheath, it is vital that these issues receive the scrutiny the public would expect in the House of Commons.
The deadline for submitting the motion is 5pm on Thursday 11 September. If you need any support in making your submission you can contact Labour CND – labourcnd@gmail.com
The text of the motion is:
Accountability and transparency of nuclear weapons policy
- Conference notes
a) the 9 August Guardian report that a confidential inspection report by Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) revealed a leak of radioactive material into Loch Long earlier this year, from the Royal Navy armaments depot at Coulport which holds the nuclear warheads for the Trident submarine fleet
b) inspection reports reveal other radioactive leaks at Coulport in 2010 and 2019
c) SEPA and MoD sought to prevent journalists accessing these reports, claiming national security until Scottish Information Commissioner David Hamilton said disclosure threatened ‘reputations’ not security, and ruled their release
- Conference further notes UK governments have become increasingly resistant to releasing nuclear information not only to journalists but also to both parliament and public, including:
d) the 2021 Integrated Review decision that nuclear warheads and missile numbers would no longer to be published, coinciding with an increase in the cap on warhead stockpiles in breach of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and
e) Minsters have not answered MPs questions about sit US nuclear weapons in Britain.
- Conference believes:
f) the SERPA report highlights continued risks to people and environment from nuclear weapons programmes, and
g) it is completely inappropriate for the government to maintain silence about major escalations in nuclear dangers.
4 Conference therefore calls on the Prime Minister to hold a parliamentary debate on the major change in Britain’s security arrangements which hosting US nuclear weapons represents.
ENDS