Labour’s David Lammy admits solely supporting UK’s nuclear deterrent technique after Russia invaded Ukraine in main defence U-turn

Labour’s Shadow Overseas Secretary has admitted he solely began supporting the UK’s nuclear deterrent after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

David Lammy – who voted with half the Shadow Cupboard in opposition to renewing Trident in 2016 – had beforehand opposed the coverage on the grounds of his Christian religion.

His visits to Ukraine in his position as Labour’s Overseas spokesman, nonetheless, have ‘really proven [him] the seriousness of the systemic danger that Vladimir Putin poses’ – and made certain he’s now ‘100 per cent’ behind the nuclear deterrent.

Mr Lammy’s feedback got here only a day after deputy chief Angela Rayner threw the get together’s defence coverage into disarray by saying she did not remorse voting in opposition to the nuclear deterrent in Parliament eight years in the past.

Final evening a Conservative Occasion spokesperson mentioned: ‘David Lammy is discovering excuses to cover the easy incontrovertible fact that he doesn’t and by no means has supported the UK’s nuclear deterrent.

Lammy’s visits to Ukraine have ‘really proven [him] the seriousness of the systemic danger that Vladimir Putin poses’

‘Keir Starmer can’t declare to have modified the Labour Occasion when the person he would make Overseas Secretary so clearly lacks the conviction to face up for the nation’s safety.’

Mr Lammy advised the i newspaper: ‘The reality is, I suppose, is what I’ve seen in Ukraine, and as a Privy Councillor, the entry that I’ve had on bipartisan phrases with the federal government for the reason that battle in Ukraine has really proven me the seriousness of the systemic danger that Vladimir Putin poses to our nation.’

‘Had Ukraine been allowed to retain their nuclear weapons after its independence from the Soviet Union, they’d not have confronted the invasion that they did from Putin.

‘So, for all of these causes, the nuclear deterrent is important, and that is why John Healey [Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary] has talked concerning the triple lock, which is about upgrading our submarines, completely 100 per cent upkeep of trident and, after all, our long-term dedication to spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence.

‘I and lots of others within the Labour Occasion owe a debt to [Ernest] Bevin. He was central to the nuclear deterrent.’

‘Had Ukraine been allowed to retain their nuclear weapons after its independence from the Soviet Union, they’d not have confronted the invasion that they did from Putin’ Lammy mentioned 

Sir Keir used a speech on Monday to announce Labour’s dedication to a ‘nuclear triple lock’ and had insisted his whole Shadow Cupboard was now behind him on the problem.

However he refused to say if his Shadow Overseas Secretary had undergone a damascene conversion, as a substitute telling reporters: ‘I lead this get together I’ve modified this get together if we’re privileged to return in to serve I would be the prime minister of the UK.’

Again in 2015, Mr Lammy mentioned: ‘The cash being spent on Trident might fund as much as 850,000 new inexpensive houses, or 9,000 new colleges. Public providers have to be our precedence.’

A yr later, he wrote in Christian Information: ‘The thought of loving thy neighbour and defending our world for future generations merely can’t maintain if we’ve stockpiles of weapons that may destroy our neighbours and destroy our world for future generations.

‘Not solely do nuclear weapons contradict spiritual rules, any type of worldwide relations primarily based on the specter of mutual destruction is completely contradictory to the preamble of Article 1 of the United Nations Constitution.’

In the meantime, Ms Rayner, who mentioned in 2020 that she needed to see a ‘world with out nuclear weapons’, threatened to spark an inside get together row by saying she had not ‘modified her thoughts’ on the matter.

She advised the BBC: ‘The vote that we had some years in the past talked about nothing about multilateral disarmament and what I really feel is basically necessary for the long run is that globally we must be disarmament of nuclear weapons however that must be accomplished together with different nations.’

Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, shadow Scotland Secretary Ian Murray and Shadow Wales Secretary Jo Stevens have been additionally amongst these to have voted in opposition to Trident.