‘Peace Minister’ draws up plan to axe Trident

LABOUR’S ‘peace minister’ is devising plans to get the party to reverse its support for Trident nuclear missiles.

Jeremy Corbyn ally Fabian Hamilton has drawn up a strategy in which engineers would retrain to work in other areas.

He claims to have shown the plans as part of a ‘peace doctrine’ to the Labour leader, who put it to the shadow cabinet, including shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith.

Much of the opposition to scrapping the nuclear deterrent has come from the unions who want to protect thousands of jobs. Labour officially backs Trident, although Mr Corbyn has a long-standing opposition to nuclear weapons.

Leeds North East MP Mr Hamilton said he hoped to persuade unions to reverse their opposition by showing that workers in the defence sector can be redeployed in areas such as health technology.

He added: ‘I have always said party policy says we should renew Trident but I say we should scrap it. That is also the view of the leader of the party.’

The £40billion Trident upgrade programme will replace the four submarines which carry the UK’s nuclear missiles with a new class of subs known as Successor.

Earlier this week shadow chancellor John McDonnell vowed that a Labour government would maintain Britain’s nuclear deterrent but said the public would get a say before it could be used.