Queen's Speech

Baroness Williams of Crosby Excerpts

Wednesday 26th May 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Crosby]

My Lords, I begin by declaring an interest as a member of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.

I echo the noble Baroness, Lady Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde, in her remarks about and compliments to the new Minister of State at the Foreign Office, the noble Lord, Lord Howell of Guildford. In the many debates we have had in this House, I have always been very struck by his great ability to see the world as it changes and to grasp that it is beginning to alter radically. He has always reminded us of that by telling us about the emergence of new countries, such as China and India, into real prominence, and about the vital importance of taking their interests and influence into account. He is right in that. He is a man with a wide grasp of what is going on in the world. Many of us have come to deeply appreciate him over the years in which we have had the great benefit of hearing him contribute to debates on international affairs. Let me also say that the noble Baroness, Lady Kinnock, shares the amazing characteristic of her husband in being able to equate her passionate commitment with her brilliant eloquence. I am sure that we all look forward to hearing what she has to say as the opposition spokesman on these matters.

It is important to say things that are true about parties other than our own in this House. One of the missed opportunities was when the former Prime Minister, the right honourable Gordon Brown, who had established a considerable international reputation in the field of nuclear non-proliferation, inspection and, not least, verification, decided in April, because the election was so proximate, not to declare what he was inclined to declare; namely, that the United Kingdom would not use nuclear weapons against any non-nuclear country that was in alignment with its requirements and in compliance with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. It was a long step forward in the long battle to have a more civilised approach to nuclear weapons. Understandably, the former Prime Minister felt unable to make that statement at the United Nations in New York because the election was so close. Only a few weeks later, we had such a statement from President Obama in the nuclear posture review. In taking the position that he took, he repeated that commitment to non-nuclear-weapons countries in compliance with the NPT. That was an important step forward for the United States.

I was at first concerned that, as a country, we were not taking a sufficient lead in this matter, not forgetting that the nuclear non-proliferation treaty conference will end in two days’ time, on 28 May, and that we might therefore lose the opportunity to be heard internationally on an issue of the greatest importance. I was therefore very pleased that the Foreign Secretary in the coalition Government said what he said today in the House of Commons, and I hope that every possible step will be taken to convey that speech to those still engaged in negotiations in New York. He said that he would state openly the number of nuclear warheads that the United Kingdom has in deployment and in active alert status at present and expects to have in future: 225 nuclear weapons in total and as a maximum. That was an important statement and bore out the commitment of the P5 nuclear powers to be transparent with the rest of the world, which is a crucial element in building trust.

The second thing the new Foreign Secretary said in another place today was that the new Government will take the view that the nuclear posture of the United Kingdom should be radically reviewed. In other words, we will look at it again in the light of the movements forward in the fields of international relations, foreign policy and so forth. I was delighted about that because various messages have reached me in my capacity as a member of the international commission that our position in the discussions and negotiations in New York was substantially hardening on the issue of disarmament. It therefore meant a great deal to me that the Foreign Secretary took this position with regard to the nuclear posture in future. We know that the nuclear posture review in the United States led to a restrictive interpretation of the use of nuclear weapons, and I hope that we will see a similar development here in the United Kingdom so that we can encourage what may be a once-in-a-century opportunity to move towards reductions in nuclear arsenals and a more sensible attitude towards the alert status of so many nuclear weapons in the world.

In that context, I shall add one other important point. As the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference moves towards its final statement on 28 May—the presidential outline of the conclusions is already available—I hope that it will set out a series of specific, concrete steps that can be taken to push on from the review conference towards further treaties and agreements on reducing the prospect of the use of this terrible weapon.

I shall quickly say a few things about specific cases. First, I welcome the decision by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty conference to call for a conference, headed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, on the Middle East. As all of us in this Chamber know, the situation in the Middle East has become rather like something caught in the choking mechanism of a human being—that is to say, unless it can be removed, sooner or later the world’s prospects for peace will decline rapidly. The situation has gone on year after year, and we still hear a great deal of talk about the two-state solution as it begins to disappear more and more rapidly as a result of—forgive me—such things as the increase in settlements and the blockade of Gaza.

The second issue I want to touch on is equally controversial. It would be helpful if the Government looked more closely at the Turkish-Brazilian agreement with Iran for a large part of its low-enriched uranium to be passed to Turkey—a loyal member of NATO—for processing, thereby removing a large part of the LEU stocks from Iran to a country that is much safer from our point of view. It was dismissed too easily and quickly without sufficient concern being shown or given to the prospect of finding some way out of the endless misery of our relations with Iran. North Korea seems to be passing into a period of extreme irrationality, and we have to think about how to deal with that almost impossible situation.

Finally, let me echo the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, and my noble friend Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer, who said that a substantial number of clubs and organisations have been set up in this House and in Parliament—in particular the top-level group, the parliamentary committee to which the noble Baroness referred—that are concerned to move forward the prospect of greater reductions in nuclear arsenals and all the rest of it in every way that they can. I believe that that has been an important contribution by this House as well as by the United Kingdom. We have a long and distinguished record of contributing to disarmament negotiations and of recognising that there are more ways than simply warfare to deal with the world’s conflicts. In that context, I echo what the noble Baroness and the noble Lords, Lord Hannay and Lord Ramsbotham, said about Trident. We need to look at that decision in the light of the movements in the world as a whole towards, we hope, a different kind of world. That decision should be made in that context and in no other because, as was said so eloquently by the noble Lord, Lord Blackwell, we want a foreign policy that is appropriate to the modern world, not one that simply harks back to the Cold War.