Huhne: "I Would Scrap Trident"

12.00.00am GMT Sun 28th Oct 2007

In an interview with today's Observer, Chris Huhne said it was ridiculous to spend up to £15 billion updating the ageing submarine-based Trident nuclear arsenal. He goes on to rejecting any new generation of Trident, favouring a less powerful, minimal deterrent.

"The old Cold War presumption of a threatened Soviet first strike no longer made any sense" said Chris. "The current threats came from 'rogue states' or 'terrorists' and did not require a system like Trident to provide a deterrent."

"It would be ridiculous to replace the system with something of equivalent power, strength and lack of vulnerability. It will also make us dependent for decades to come on the US for maintenance".