Trident: Test Firing Debate

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Department: Ministry of Defence

Trident: Test Firing

Robert Jenrick Excerpts
Monday 23rd January 2017

(7 years, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Michael Fallon Portrait Sir Michael Fallon
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This is our deterrent carried by our submarine. The secrecy that we—I think rightly—put around it is in our national interest.

Robert Jenrick Portrait Robert Jenrick (Newark) (Con)
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Does my right hon. Friend agree that ever since Clement Attlee sought our first nuclear deterrent without a debate in Parliament, and even without a debate within the Labour party, successive responsible Governments have always treated these issues with the utmost discretion, and that we must not allow the present tortured relationship between the Labour party and the nuclear deterrent to change that?

Michael Fallon Portrait Sir Michael Fallon
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I do agree. Previous Governments have been very careful to maintain the secrecy of the deterrent; I think it is important that we keep to that.