Jeremy Corbyn is at odds with the military for the second time. On the Andrew Marr Show this morning, General Sir Nicholas Houghton, the Chief of the Defence Staff, expressed concerns about the Labour leader’s position on Trident — in particular that he would never press the button. ‘Well it would worry me if that thought was translated into power as it were,’ Houghton said, also noting ‘there’s a couple of hurdles to cross before we get to that’.
Although Houghton’s remarks may appear a little sinister, he explained his concerns about Corbyn were not personal. Instead, his aim is to ensure Britain has an effective nuclear deterrent:
‘But the reason I say this – and it’s not based on a personal thing at all, it’s purely based on the credibility of deterrence. The whole thing about deterrence rests on the credibility of its use. When people say you’re never going to use the deterrent, what I say is you use the deterrent you know every second of every minute of every day and the purpose of the deterrent is that you don’t have to use it because you successfully deter.’
Corbyn isn’t at all happy about Houghton appearing to stick his oar into politics (even though he was simply explaining how the doctrine of nuclear deterrence works) and has released this statement, arguing it’s a constitutional matter:
‘It is a matter of serious concern that the Chief of the Defence Staff has today intervened directly in issues of political dispute. It is essential in a democracy that the military remains political neutral at all times. By publicly taking sides in current political arguments, Sir Nicholas Houghton has clearly breached that constitutional principle. Accordingly, I am writing to the Defence Secretary to ask him to take action to ensure that the neutrality of the armed forces is upheld.’
But to make the situation even more muddled, the shadow defence secretary Maria Eagle (a support of Trident) agreed with Houghton, telling Marr in a later interview:
‘I understand the point that [Sir Nicholas] is making and it’s a point that I made myself when Jeremy said what he said. I said that there are those who don’t believe deterrence works, I’m not one of them. I think Jeremy’ s point of view is about whether or not he believes in the effectiveness of deterrence.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zMy92Y13kw
Although Eagle and Houghton’s concerns will be shared by many voters — as well as moderates in the Labour party — there is a danger that the public will be wary that the military is getting involved in political matters, especially when it’s hard to say exactly where the party is on Trident. But the fact that Corbyn and Eagle are split on the matter shows the utter chaos Labour is currently in. In a normal situation, Eagle would be booted out of the shadow cabinet for her comments. But this is the ‘New Politics’ apparently, where public debates and disagreements are encouraged.
It’ll also be interesting to see how Michael Fallon responds to Corbyn’s complaint, given that he has form on personally attacking Labour leaders over Trident. He can potentially score some easy points here — backing up Houghton’s position and arguing that Corbyn is dangerous.
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