Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of breaking a post-cold war policy to reduce the size of Britain’s nuclear stockpile for no obvious “strategic purposes” in a Commons debate on the integrated review of defence and foreign policy.
The Labour leader told MPs that government plans to lift the Trident warhead cap by over 40% to 260 marked the end of 30 years of gradual nuclear disarmament by the UK and had not been supported by proper explanation.
Although Starmer said he had “voted for the renewal of Trident” and that the opposition’s “support for nuclear deterrence is non-negotiable”, he asked why Johnson believed that increasing the stockpile was necessary.
“This review breaks the goal of successive prime ministers and cross-party efforts to reduce our nuclear stockpile. It doesn’t explain, when, why, or for what strategic purpose,” the Labour leader told the Commons.
In response, the prime minister said: “It’s ridiculous for him to talk about our nuclear defences, Mr Speaker, when the reality is that Labour is all over the place.”
The last time MPs voted on Trident, Johnson added, both Lisa Nandy, the shadow foreign secretary, and Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, voted against. “And they want to talk about standing up for our armed forces,” Johnson said.
MPs were debating the newly published review, which committed the UK to lifting its cap on the number of warheads it has from 180 to 260, the first time the UK has increased its nuclear stockpile for decades.
Prior to the debate, defence sources said the decision to lift the UK’s Trident warhead cap by over 40% was motivated by a desire to be more assertive about nuclear weapons. “If we have them, let’s not apologise for it, let’s own it,” an insider said.
The document also sets out the UK’s post-Brexit international policy, with the prime minister highlighting the US as the country’s most important ally while using carefully calibrated language about China – to the disappointment of Beijing hawks on the party’s backbenches.
Johnson said the UK had “led the international community in expressing our deep concern over China’s mass detention of the Uighur people in Xinjiang province” and had given 3 million Hong Kong people a route to British citizenship after Beijing’s security crackdown last year.
“There is no question that China will pose great challenges for an open society such as ours. But we will also work with China where that is consistent with our values and interests, including to build a stronger and positive economic relationship and address climate change,” the prime minister said.
But Starmer accused the Conservatives of pursuing “an inconsistent policy towards China for a decade”. Previous administrations “have spent 10 years turning a blind eye to human rights abuses while inviting China to help build our infrastructure,” he added.
Although stimulated in part by Brexit, the integrated review makes barely any mention of the EU, signalling instead that the UK should pursue an “Indo-Pacific tilt” to its defence and foreign policy in future.
In a dismissive sideswipe against the 27-country bloc, Johnson told MPs that “the UK could never turn inwards or be content with the cramped horizons of a regional foreign policy” without referring to the EU by name.
Global Britain, he insisted, was not a post-colonial “reflection of old obligations, still less a vainglorious gesture” but, he argued “a necessity for the safety and prosperity of the British people in the decades ahead”.
The prime minister also said he would visit India next month, rescheduling a summit with the prime minister, Narendra Modi, from January that had been delayed because of the surge in coronavirus cases in the UK at the beginning of the year.
The former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt also said he was concerned about the review’s language on China. “I am worried about designating China simply as a systemic challenge given the terrible events in Hong Kong and Xinjiang so will he keep this under review?”
Julian Lewis, chair of the intelligence and security committee, strongly criticised the ambition for collaboration with China, which he called “our adversary”.
Quoting from the report in which was called China an “increasingly important partner in tackling global challenges like pandemic preparedness … deeper trade links and more Chinese investment in the UK”, he said: “Doesn’t that unfortunately demonstrate that the grasping naivety of the Cameron–Osborne years still lingers on in some departments of state?”
Johnson said: “Those who call for a new cold war on China or for us to sequester our economy entirely from China … I think are mistaken. We have a balance to strike. We needed to have a clear-eyed relationship with China.”
