PM knew of Trident test before key Commons vote
THERESA May confirmed yesterday that she was told about a Trident nuclear missile test – which was later alleged to have failed – before she urged MPs to vote to renew the missile system.
But the Government refused to confirm or deny whether, or how, the firing of an unarmed missile during the test last June off the Florida coast went wrong.
Mrs May insisted details of Britain’s nuclear deterrent must be kept secret and that overall the submarine test was a success. As Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon stonewalled MPs’ questions in the Commons, US news network CNN reported an unnamed US defence official “with direct knowledge of the incident” confirming that the missile had failed.
A leak to a British Sunday newspaper reported that the missile had veered towards the US instead of its target thousands of miles away in the sea off the coast of west Africa.
The official said the missile’s rerouting was part of an automatic self-destruct sequence which is initiated if an error is detected.
Meanwhile British defence sources said the US-made missile malfunctioned because the directional information was faulty – suggesting human or software error – and it was duly blown up.
The reports sparked anger among opposition MPs that the Government was withholding information from the public and Parliament that others, including the Americans, were receiving.
Labour shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith protested: “The British public deserve the facts on a matter as important as Britain’s nuclear deterrent and they deserve to hear those facts from their Prime Minister, not in allegations sprawled across a Sunday paper.”
Shakedown
Labour MP Kevin Brennan accused Sir Michael of taking a “name, rank and serial number, ‘don’t tell him, Pike’ ” approach which made “no sense” when the Americans would have all the details.
Sir Michael insisted: “This is our submarine, our deterrent... our missile, and it is for us to decide its level of security.”
On Sunday, Mrs May refused four times to confirm that she knew of the test when she went to the Commons as Prime Minister in July and persuaded a majority of MPs to back the principle of her £40billion Trident submarine renewal programme.
But yesterday morning her official spokeswoman confirmed that Mrs May was informed about the test when she became PM.
Later in the day Mrs May and Sir Michael refused to confirm or deny a malfunction.
They insisted the “demonstration and shakedown” MOT-style testing of HMS Vengeance, its system and crew had been successful and enabled the submarine to rejoin Britain’s fourboat nuclear submarine fleet following a lengthy refit.
Mrs May said after a meeting of her Cabinet in Cheshire: “We don’t comment on operational details for national security reasons.”