LONDON (AP) – Could Britain give up the Bomb?
For six decades, British governments have considered unilateral nuclear disarmament unthinkable – but the once-unthinkable is the Labour Party’s new normal. Britain’s main opposition party has just elected a leader from the radical left, and this week party members may commit a future Labour government to scrapping Britain’s Trident nuclear arms program.
It’s the latest signal that new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is prepared to consider policies that were off the agenda for decades, from nationalizing industry to diverging on foreign policy from the United States.
“My views on Trident are very well known,” Corbyn said Sunday, as Labour’s annual conference opened in the seaside resort of Brighton – with a debate on nuclear weapons scheduled for the first time in many years.
“I want us to fulfill our obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty – hence non-renewal of Trident,” he said.