Trident: SNP plan to call for House of Commons vote to debate renewal of Britain’s nuclear weapons

The party’s Westminster leader said he hoped Jeremy Corbyn will join SNP MPs in the voting lobbies to oppose Trident

The Royal Navy's Trident-class nuclear submarine Vanguard moored in Farslane, Scotland. The SNP has already voted to maintain the party’s firm opposition to renewing Trident when the existing fleet is taken out of service in 2020 (PA)

The SNP will attempt to exploit Labour’s division over whether to renew Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons by calling a vote on the issue in the House of Commons.

Angus Robertson, the party’s Westminster leader, said he hoped the new Labour leader will join SNP MPs in the voting lobbies to oppose Trident “as he has often done in the past” but said he would not be “holding my breath” to see whether he brought many of his fellow Labour MPs with him.

SNP members voted to maintain the party’s firm opposition to renewing Trident when the existing fleet is taken out of service in 2020.

The Government is expected to call a vote by the end of 2016 but reports over the last week have suggested it could be held before Christmas in a bid to stop Nicola Sturgeon and Jeremy Corbyn turning next May’s Scottish parliament elections into a referendum on Trident.

The issue deeply divides the Labour party, with shadow cabinet members openly speaking out against Mr Corbyn after he said he would never press the nuclear button if he became Prime Minister.

He suffered a major blow at the Labour party conference in Brighton last month when trade unions sided with Labour MPs to block moves to scupper his attempts to oppose the renewal of Trident, despite behind-the-scenes attempts by senior members of Mr Corbyn’s staff to get the issue on the conference agenda.

He nevertheless used his keynote conference speech to reaffirm his opposition to renewing Trident, insisting his landslide victory in the Labour leadership election gave him a mandate to push through the policy.

He will face a tough challenge to persuade his party to vote to ditch nuclear weapons, however, and Mr Robertson signalled the SNP’s intention to exploit Labour’s lack of unity on the issue in the House of Commons.

Addressing SNP delegates at the party’s biggest ever conference in Aberdeen, Mr Robertson said: “Labour weren't prepared to have a specific debate on Trident at their conference. I am pleased that the SNP is debating it here at our conference,” Mr Robertson told SNP at the party’s biggest ever conference in Aberdeen.

”I'm also happy to help Jeremy Corbyn and ensure that there is an early debate and vote at Westminster aimed at opposing Trident renewal.

“Hopefully Jeremy will join the SNP in the lobbies as he has often done in the past in opposing Trident, although I am not holding my breath that he can bring his colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party with him.”