Shapps rejects ‘insane’ Trident claims
THE Defence Secretary has denied any member of the Government was involved in a humiliating episode which saw a Trident missile misfire and crash into the ocean.
Grant Shapps – said to have been present when the nuclear weapon misfired – denied an “insane rumour” he had been involved in its launch. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) previously confirmed an “anomaly occurred” off the Florida coast on January 30.
The Sun revealed the story in February and said the unarmed missile’s boosters did not ignite and it fell into the ocean and sank.
A source said: “It left the submarine but it just went plop, right next to them.”
Speaking at the Defence Committee in Westminster yesterday, SNP MP Martin DochertyHughes questioned Shapps about the story – asking him to rule out rumours he had been involved in launching the missile.
It is understood the rumour purported that Shapps had pushed the launch button – something he categorically denied.
Docherty-Hughes said: “There is a as a small, open economy, which you then will be, you need to balance your imports and your imports and your exports over the long term, or everyone thinks your currency is shite.
“At that point they dump it, prefer payments in British pounds, and then you get a run on your foreign exchange, and you get a mini-Argentina on your hands.”
The comments were seized upon by the Scottish Tories and the LibDems, who both claimed they were “devastating” and “demolished” the economic case for independence.
However, Blyth has now spoken out to accuse the Unionist politicians of “weaponising” his words and taking them out of context. The top economics professor wrote on social media that his words had all been “on the applicability of a theory [MMT] to a case [Scottish independence]”.
He said: “So, over the weekend there was an event in Dundee called Scotonomics. I could not attend, so I did a prerecord. The interview went all over the place, but the organisers chose to highlight a wee bit where I rather insane rumour going round at the moment that we’ve been hearing about today that with the unarmed missile misfire earlier, I think was it last month, that a member of the Cabinet may actually have been involved in the firing of that missile.”
Shapps replied: “I can absolutely although we don’t discuss national security issues I can absolutely guarantee, assure you that is completely untrue.” Laughing, he added: “It’s not one I’ve heard, I should say.”
The story further intensified questions for the MoD about the state of the UK’s nuclear fleet.