Liam Fox says there is nothing new in what Gordon Brown is saying about Trident

Many column inches are given over in this morning's papers (here, for example) to Gordon Brown's impending announcement that he is surrendering one of Britain's four Trident submarines. But Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox is saying that there is nothing new in what he is saying. He has released a statement saying:

“There is nothing new in what the Prime Minster is saying. In the Government’s White Paper in December 2006, they said they would look at reducing our deterrent to three submarines".

He then goes on to restate the Conservative position on Trident:

“We have often restated our commitment to Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent and to the replacement of Trident. If we can maintain our independent nuclear deterrent and make a contribution to disarmament, then we should look at ways of doing so... We have already said that we would consider reducing the number of submarines to three if we can maintain continuous-at-sea patrols and the UK’s credible nuclear deterrent with this number.”

Jonathan Isaby