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Labour Party commits to nuclear deterrent

Labour is to set out its core principles on defence and security, including commitments to NATO and the nuclear deterrent.

Giving a speech to the Royal United Service Institute, Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey will underline Labour’s determination to see defence spending produce jobs, growth and innovation in this country.

It has already been announced that he will claim that the foundations for the government’s long-delayed Integrated Review have been undermined by the last decade of cuts to defence. He will set out tests that the Review must meet if it is to end what the Prime Minister himself has called ‘the era of retreat.’

Healey will issue a direct challenge to the government, to learn from the mistakes of the two previous failed defence reviews, saying that they will be challenged if they attempt ‘to smother strategic decision making in clouds of rhetoric and hubris’.

The MP for Wentworth and Dearne will say that Labour’s commitment to NATO is ‘unshakeable’ and that support for the UK’s nuclear deterrent is ‘non-negotiable’.

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