Labour Conference Won't Vote on Trident
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will avoid a showdown over the renewal of the Trident nuclear missile system at his party conference because motions on the issue have not won approval.
Delegates voted on a number of issues they want to debate during the Brighton conference this week, but Trident was not one of them so will not be the subject of a vote.
Leaders of the country's biggest trade unions had already made clear they would oppose any moves to scrap the Trident nuclear weapons system amid calls by Mr Corbyn for an end to the UK's weapons of mass destruction''.
Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, which has thousands of members in the defence industry, said his main focus is the protection of jobs.
Mr Corbyn said: This is an open and democratic party and the members at conference have decided to discuss the issues that they want to debate this week.
These are important issues like the NHS, the refugee crisis, mental health and housing.''
A number of constituency parties had tabled motions on defence which called for Trident to be scrapped, but they did not have enough support from delegates to be debated at conference.
The future of Trident is just one area where Mr Corbyn has different views to his colleagues in the Commons, but sweeping changes to the way Labour policy is formed could see the grassroots members who overwhelmingly backed his leadership bid given a greater influence.
The difficulties faced by Mr Corbyn in uniting his shadow cabinet behind him have been highlighted by the debate on the nuclear deterrent.
Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn and shadow justice secretary Lord Falconer have both spoken out against abandoning the UK's nuclear capability, and Mr Corbyn said we are going to come to an accommodation of some sort''.
Former leadership contender Chuka Umunna, who ruled out serving in the shadow cabinet because of differences with Mr Corbyn over issues including Trident, said the party would have to fix its position on such key policies.
It's not plausible for us as an opposition not to have a position on the defence of the realm,'' he told a fringe meeting.
I think at the moment, we are fresh out of a leadership election, we are not long from a general election where we went down to one of our worst defeats.''
A spokesman for the GMB union said: The Labour Party went before the electorate with a commitment to renew Trident, and that remains party policy. We are pleased there is no threat to the tens of thousands of workers in the defence sector.''
The Government is set to make a decision on whether to renew Trident by the end of next year.