Trident labelled a 'deadly farce' by Scots campaigners

Campaigners say the UK’s nuclear bomb programme has become a ‘deadly farce’ after Ministry of Defence figures revealed that the cost of UK programmes to replace Trident and nuclear submarines on the Clyde increased by over £1 billion in a year.

The construction of new reactor cores, replacement submarines and major new facilities at the Faslane and Coulport bases in Argyll are also facing prolonged delays, with growing doubts over whether some projects can be successfully delivered.

Four major nuclear projects have been officially rated as ‘amber’ or worse, meaning that they have ‘significant issues’. Two have been ‘rebaselined’ by the MoD, meaning that costs have risen significantly and timescales lengthened.

Now, the Scottish National Party has accused the MoD of ‘a pattern of dysfunction’ that wastes billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money.