Trident has become a political weapon in certain constituencies

One constituency where the Tory attacks about a possible deal between Labour and the SNP work very well is Barrow and Furness, where Labour’s John Woodcock is standing for re-election. The seat includes shipyards where the new Trident submarines would be built, and so any suggestion that Labour might scale back its commitment to Trident is hugely potent for the local campaign.

A couple of days after Michael Fallon launched his poorly-received attack on Ed Miliband, in which the Defence Secretary warned that the Labour leader had stabbed his brother in the back and could therefore quite easily stab the UK in the back by forging a deal with the SNP, a letter on the same subject went out to voters in Barrow. It was sent to 20,000 households, and was from Fallon. It warned of the threat of a Labour-SNP deal to Trident.

What hasn’t helped has been a suggestion made by Ed Balls on Pienaar’s Politics that Labour could consider fewer than four new submarines. The Shadow Chancellor said this in March, more it seems as a way of showing he was tough with finances than because of any particular evidence that this would work. The Tories have found it rather useful ever since.

But yesterday Woodcock announced that he would step down as a Labour MP if after the election Labour rowed back on what he says is now a firm commitment to four boats. Posing with a placard and a stern expression on a bridge in his constituency, the candidate said:

‘I wanted to give the clearest possible sign of my absolute confidence that a future Labour government will build four boats here in Barrow.’

My pledge: am so confident Labour will build four Trident successor submarines that I will resign as MP if we don’t pic.twitter.com/XRBu9LYTCh — John Woodcock (@JWoodcockMP) April 27, 2015

This means the party has got a sufficiently firm position for one of its candidates for re-election to make a pledge – it’s not Woodcock trying to push his seniors into making a decision. He says he is worried that Fallon’s attack will damage the local industry in any case by undermining confidence that there will be an order for Trident renewal. ‘This is not what the Secretary of State should be doing: it is his job to build on confidence in the programme. He used to come along to meetings and praise the consensus between parties on this issue.’ Clearly Fallon’s colleagues in CCHQ felt that needs must, though it will be interesting to see whether his role in that political attack makes relations with the industry more difficult if the Tories are in power after the election and he is Defence Secretary.

Barrow is a rather specific case, and a firmer position on Trident means more there than it does elsewhere. Labour has tried to narrow down its position on working with the SNP in Parliament to a vote-by-vote arrangement where the party would dare the nationalists to back or vote against its proposals, as well as trying to get support from other parties for each vote, too.