A Labour former defence minister has described leader Jeremy Corbyn’s suggestion that nuclear submarines could be retained without having to carry warheads at all times as “ill-informed”.
Kevan Jones, who quit the Labour frontbench after pro-Trident Maria Eagle was removed from her shadow defence secretary role, warned that you cannot turn the nuclear deterrent “on and off like a tap”.
He spoke as Ms Eagle’s replacement and Trident sceptic Emily Thornberry made her Commons debut at defence questions.
Mr Corbyn’s plan appeared designed to win over trade unions who fear that scrapping Trident – as the Labour leader wishes – would destroy tens of thousands of jobs in the defence industry.
Ms Thornberry, who is leading the party’s defence review, has confirmed she is looking at the “Japanese option” – retaining the capacity to build nuclear weapons without actually possessing them.
But defence minister Philip Dunne backed Mr Jones’s insistence that jobs cannot be “switched on and off”.
Mr Jones told MPs: “Would you agree that it’s not just about the number of jobs involved in the successor programme but the high-skilled nature of those jobs?
“Despite ill-informed comments from my own party at the weekend with regards to these jobs, would you also agree with me that simply you can’t turn them on and off like a tap when you need them?”
Mr Dunne replied: “I’d like to add my tribute of your stalwart work in your position both on these when you were a defence minister and on those benches when you were a shadow.
“And it’s a sorry state to see you sitting right at the back of the back benches today.
“You are of course quite right to point out that this is a long-term endeavour, to design and build a nuclear-enabled submarine takes decades and this is a 35-year project from initial conception to commissioning.
“And that those skills not only take a long time to develop, they can’t be switched on and off, and they are the very forefront of engineering capability in this country.
“Building a nuclear submarine is more difficult than sending a man to the moon.”