London — New British Prime Minster Theresa May on\u00a0Monday won her first parliamentary battle when MPs overwhelmingly voted to\u00a0replace the aging submarines that carry Britain’s nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her first address to the House of Commons since taking office last week\u00a0following the EU referendum, May warned that the threat from nuclear weapons\u00a0was increasing and said it would be an “act of gross irresponsibility” to\u00a0abandon the nuclear deterrent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Parliamentarians voted in favour of the motion by a margin of 472 to 117, a\u00a0
The vote gives the green light for the construction of four new submarines\u00a0to carry the Trident missile system and their nuclear warheads, at a cost of\u00a0\u00a341 billion (49 billion euros, $54 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some 138 Labour lawmakers, over 70 percent of those party members who\u00a0voted, backed the Conservative government despite the opposition of their\u00a0leader Jeremy Corbyn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May cited Russian aggression and the nuclear ambitions of North Korea as\u00a0proof that “the nuclear threat has not gone away, if anything it has\u00a0increased”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It is impossible to say for certain that no extreme threats will emerge in\u00a0the next 30 or 40 years to threaten our security and way of life,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“And it would be an act of gross irresponsibility to lose the ability to\u00a0meet such threats by discarding the ultimate insurance against those risks in\u00a0the future.” It has had a continuous at-sea deterrent since 1969, meaning that a\u00a0submarine — equipped with up to 40 nuclear warheads — is always deployed\u00a0somewhere in the oceans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each boat contains a sealed letter from the prime minister containing\u00a0instructions on how to proceed if a nuclear strike on Britain has\u00a0incapacitated the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pressed whether she would be prepared to launch a nuclear attack and kill\u00a0100,000 innocent people, May said: “Yes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n MPs voted overwhelmingly in 2007 to begin preparatory work on building a\u00a0replacement for the current Vanguard-class submarines, with Monday’s decision\u00a0clearing the way for them to enter service in the early 2030s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some 30,000 jobs are linked to the nuclear deterrent, although the Trident\u00a0missiles themselves are built in the United States. They will not need\u00a0replacing until the 2040s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Critics question the morality, effectiveness and cost of the program,\u00a0with construction of the new boats alone estimated at \u00a331 billion, with \u00a310\u00a0billion contingency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), which held a protest outside\u00a0parliament during the debate, put the total cost at \u00a3205 billion, although\u00a0this is over 30 years and includes decommissioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Nuclear weapons are indiscriminate,” protester Jane Orr, 55, told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The skin melts off people with nuclear weapons and it’s just catastrophic\u00a0to think it’s a deterrent, it cannot be used.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his speech to MPs, veteran socialist and long-time anti-war campaigner\u00a0Corbyn said Britain’s possession of nuclear weapons had not deterred the\u00a0Islamic State group — and warned that it was immoral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said: “I do not believe the threat of mass murder is a legitimate way to\u00a0go about international relations.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The government says it remains committed to reducing its nuclear arsenal in\u00a0line with its international obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The debate acted as a unifying event for the Conservatives, as MPs rallied\u00a0around the new prime minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it only deepened splits between left-wing and centrist members of the\u00a0Labour party, which crystallised in the turmoil sparked by the Brexit vote and\u00a0have led to a leadership challenge against Corbyn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" London — New British Prime Minster Theresa May on\u00a0Monday won her first parliamentary battle when MPs overwhelmingly voted to\u00a0replace the aging submarines that carry Britain’s nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":51937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":33,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2793],"class_list":["post-24060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"MXA523373JGPDPLKXZNPMYRCDE","arc_canonical_url":"\/home\/2016\/07\/18\/british-mps-back-new-pm-and-vote-to-update-nuclear-deterrent\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n