According to Ed Davey, Britain can no longer rely on the United States as a dependable ally and should manufacture and maintain its nuclear weapons domestically. He claims that US President Donald Trump has made his support for European security conditional on his personal whims. Davey will cite Trump's threat to annex Greenland and his apparent failure to take Russian President Vladimir Putin to task over the war in Ukraine as evidence that Trump is an increasingly unreliable ally.
In a speech, Davey stated, 'While Trump is in charge, we certainly cannot rely on America as a dependable ally in the way we used to. ' depends on what Donald Trump had for breakfast, then the answer is, 'No, it's not'. ' The UK's current nuclear programme, Trident, based at Faslane, near Glasgow, on the River Clyde, is heavily dependent on US input.
While Trump is in charge, we certainly cannot rely on America as a dependable ally in the way we used to. And we can no longer bet our nation's security on the hope that the US won't produce new versions of Trump in the future.
Trident missiles are manufactured in the US and have to be returned there regularly for maintenance. Davey acknowledges that manufacturing and maintaining nuclear weapons in Britain will cost billions, though specific cost estimates or budget details have not been provided. In theory, a British prime minister could choose to launch nuclear missiles without input from allies, including the US.
Davey's speech is likely to be viewed as the latest instalment of what has been dubbed Operation Epsom Fury, an attempt to attract voters disillusioned by Britain's relationship with President Trump ahead of May's local elections. How other UK political parties or government officials respond to Davey's claims about the independence of the nuclear deterrent remains unclear.
So the real question is not whether we should build a sovereign British nuclear deterrent. The question is what happens if we don't.