Trident row hits Labour as Shadow Defence Secretary’s speech is spiked

TV camera captures Clive Lewis’s furious reaction to last-gasp order from Jeremy Corbyn’s office

A fresh row over Trident wrecked Labour’s attempted show of conference unity today, exposing a split between Jeremy Corbyn and a key ally.

A bid by Shadow Defence Secretary Clive Lewis to abandon attempts to make unilateral disarmament party policy was scrapped at the last minute – on orders from Mr Corbyn’s office.

A TV camera captured Mr Lewis’s angry reaction as his speech was altered on the platform autocue as he was about to get to his feet to deliver it.

A sticky note was used to inform Mr Lewis that he must not say he “would not seek to change” his party’s current policy of backing renewal of the UK’s Trident submarines.

Instead, he told the conference: “I am clear that our party has a policy for Trident renewal,” – without a guarantee there would be no future attempt to overturn that stance.

One report suggested Mr Corbyn himself had agreed the original text with Mr Lewis, only to be overruled by his powerful director of strategy, Seamus Milne.

A senior Labour source told the Politics Home website: “Clive punched a wall when he came off the stage because Seumas altered his speech on the autocue.

“He was fuming as he sent a post-it note on stage as he was sat there ready to speak and didn't know what the exact change was. Apparently Clive had agreed it with Jeremy but Seumas changed it.”

Unlike the ongoing battle between Corbynites and centrist Labour MPs, the latest row put the leader’s office in conflict with one of his strongest Shadow Cabinet supporters.

Even Mr Lewis’s statement that current party policy is to renew Trident – and focus on multilateral disarmament talks – kicked off a furious condemnation from CND.

The campaign group accused Mr Corbyn, its long-time ally, of quietly ditching his commitment to scrap Britain’s nuclear arsenal.

Kate Hudson, the group’s general secretary, said: “There is enormous opposition to Trident replacement within the Labour Party and there will be huge disappointment at this U-turn.

“How can Labour claim to work for multilateral disarmament if it supports the Government building a new nuclear weapons system at a cost of £205bn? This means Labour is supporting nuclear rearmament.”

In July, the Commons voted overwhelmingly to renew the submarine-based weapons system with 140 Labour MPs supporting the Government – while only 47 backed Mr Corbyn and voted against.

The Labour leader’s anti-nuclear stance has been fiercely criticised by the trade unions, who have accused him of putting large numbers of skilled jobs at risk.

Ms Hudson added: “Lewis has clearly signalled that the Labour leadership will not seek to change Labour policy and appears to have abandoned its Defence Review conducted extensively over the past year.”

Mr Corbyn is a former vice-chairman of CND, making its attack on him unprecedented.

Meanwhile, asked about the last-gasp change to Mr Lewis’s speech, the leader’s spokesman said: “All speeches are put together in conjunction with the leader's office. It was confirmed to Clive that the agreed speech had been amended on the autocue.”

Mr Lewis later played down the suggestions that he had clashed with Mr Corbyn’s office, insisting he was “really pleased” with the speech – and that there was “nothing to see here”.

A source told the BBC it was normal for work to be done on a speech until a late stage, adding: “Clive found it a little frustrating, but he’s OK with it now”.