UK: Labour divided over Corbyn nuclear comments

LONDON

A rift has been exposed in Britain’s opposition Labour party after its new leader pledged never to launch a nuclear weapon if he becomes prime minister.

Jeremy Corbyn said on Wednesday that “we are not in the era of the Cold War any more” and that he wanted to see a “nuclear-free world”.

But he was reproached by a member of his own leadership team, shadow defense secretary Maria Eagle, who said the comments obstructed a review of the party’s nuclear-weapons policy.

Corbyn told BBC radio on Wednesday morning that there were only five declared nuclear-weapon states in the world and that reducing this number was possible.

When asked whether he would use the U.K.’s Trident missile system if he became Prime Minister, he said: “No. One-hundred-and-eighty-seven countries don't feel the need to have a nuclear weapon to protect their security; why should those five need it themselves?”

Corbyn has long wanted to scrap the Trident weapons system but his party has traditionally supported it. Delegates voted against debating Britain’s nuclear deterrent at the party’s conference over the weekend, although Corbyn did announce a review process that may see Labour’s policy change.

But Maria Eagle, speaking later on BBC television, said she was “surprised” by Corbyn’s comments on Wednesday because it appeared to prejudge that review.

She said: “I think it undermines to some degree our attempt to try and get a policy process going. As far as I’m concerned we start from the policy we have and at the end of the process the party will decide what its policy is.

“Meanwhile we are able to discuss it openly. But I don’t think a potential prime minister answering a question like that, in the way in which he did, is helpful.”

Other members of Corbyn’s team, including Hillary Benn, the shadow foreign affairs secretary, and health spokeswoman Heidi Alexander, made public comments indicating they did not agree with their leader.

A decision on renewing Britain’s nuclear weapons system is due by 2016. The governing Conservative party, which has a majority in the House of Commons, favors a renewal.