Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

Debate between Drew Hendry and Mark Field

Monday 4th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mark Field]

By my right hon. Friend’s standards, that was rather a long question, but let me keep the answer short. He is correct.

[Drew Hendry (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey) (SNP)]

The Minister is right that the world would be better without nuclear weapons—they kill innocent people indiscriminately; they are weapons of mass destruction. If he is sincere about not wanting to return to an arms race, is it not time that the UK stopped building new ones, cancelled the Trident programme, saved a couple of hundred billion pounds the UK cannot afford and set the lead internationally?

[Mark Field]

The issue is about deterrence. As I said, if these weapons had never been invented, or if they could be mysteriously or mystically dis-invented, we would all be grateful, but that is not the case. In the practical reality of the world in which we live, we need that deterrence, so I absolutely support the Government’s policy, which has been the policy of all British Governments since 1945.