Last week the Defence Secretary sent a letter to the people of Barrow & Furness regarding the very real threat to Trident from an SNP/Labour government.
The Barrow Labour Party have been distributing their own leaflet in response but because Ed Miliband is so weak on this issue they have now taken to simply fabricating quotes that would help them.
Here’s what they’re claiming he said:
“We are committed to the independent nuclear deterrent, we are committed to renewing Trident, we are committed to continuous at-sea deterrent. We are guided by the experts and the experts say four boats. Our clear position is four boats.”
But this is what he actually did say:
“We are committed to continuous at sea deterrent. On the questions of four boats or three boats, what we’ve said is we’ll be guided by the experts. The experts say four boats. It’s right to have a review because if technology changes you can look at it. Our clear position is basically four boats.”
(Ed Miliband Q&A transcript, 09 April 2015)
To be clear, Ed Miliband will cut the order to three boats if he can find a way to do so. He’s also made it clear that they will continue to look for options to do so.
That’s what Ed Balls has said too:
“It may well mean four boats – that’s what our strategic defence review will look at. But my job is to ask those questions and, therefore, we’re going to challenge to see whether there’s any way you could do it with three rather than four.”
(Ed Balls, Pienaar’s Politics, BBC Radio 5, 15 March 2015)
So both Ed Miliband and his Shadow Chancellor are looking at ways to cut the Trident Successor programme. None of this is spin. These are actual quotes which I've presented in full and Labour have either suppressed or edited to suit their story.
If Ed Miliband feels so strongly towards Trident then why wouldn’t he spell out his intentions in his manifesto?
Here’s what the Conservatives have said:
“We will retain the Trident continuous at sea nuclear deterrent to provide the ultimate guarantee of our safety and build the new fleet of four Successor Ballistic Missile Submarines – securing thousands of highly-skilled engineering jobs in the UK.”
And here’s Labour’s paragraph on the deterrent:
“Labour remains committed to a minimum, credible, independent nuclear capability, delivered through a Continuous At-Sea Deterrent.”
Labour don’t spell out the number of submarines they wish to build in their manifesto. Instead, they simply say that they want a ‘minimum, credible’ deterrent. Why? Because they are paving the way to do a deal with the SNP.
One thing is clear this election. Either David Cameron or Ed Miliband will be Prime Minister.
Ed Miliband can only be Prime Minister with the support of SNP votes in the House of Commons – a new poll only today shows that it’s impossible otherwise. The SNP have said that they will hold Labour to ransom on a vote by vote basis in order to secure what they want, including scrapping Trident.
Ed Miliband is paving the way for a deal with the SNP because he knows that he’ll need them to govern. He is so weak that the local Labour party have simply begun making up quotes for him.
When a local party lies to the electorate to cling onto power and its leader is so weak that they have to make up quotes for him, you have to ask if they are really a party worth voting for.
There is only one way to guarantee the continuation of Trident - to vote in a Conservative government on May 7th. Every vote is needed to make that happen.