Scrapping Trident would turn Faslane into "wasteland", says Minister
Scrapping the Trident nuclear deterrent would turn an important part of Scotland into a wasteland'', Cabinet minister Chris Grayling has said.
The Commons leader said deciding not to renew Britain's nuclear submarines would harm the area around their base at Faslane, on the banks of the Clyde, because thousands of jobs would be lost.
Unions have warned that around 13,000 jobs could go if Trident is scrapped, as is favoured by the SNP and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - although not all his MPs agree.
Mr Grayling was speaking after SNP front bench spokesman Pete Wishart told the Commons that his party's opposition day debate on the subject next week would be a good chance for Labour to clarify its position.
Replying during the Commons business question, Mr Grayling said: I would gently chide you about the contradictions next week in the debate subjects you have chosen.
So, for half the day you are going to argue that we should pull out of Scotland a really vital national resource, costing thousands of jobs and leaving an important part of Scotland a wasteland.
And yet the other part of the day you're complaining about us making necessary reductions in HMRC and worried about that costing jobs in Scotland.
So I really don't understand quite how you square those two.
I think our defence industry plays a really important part in the Scottish economy as well as an important part in defending our nation, I think your position is utterly contradictory.''
Mr Grayling was later forced to clarify his comments after Labour's Ian Mearns (Gateshead) said: The area around Faslane, with or without Trident, I don't think could ever be described as being a wasteland, it's beautiful countryside.''
The Commons leader replied: There was never any doubt about the beauty of the countryside in western Scotland and indeed in Scotland as a whole, it is a fantastic part of this country and something that we all wish to spend time in.
But of course if such an important facility were lost to western Scotland, the impact on the local economy, the leaving of a site that is an important part of the local economy emptying out to waste would, I think, be a tragedy.
And it's why I disagree with the Scottish nationalists in relation to the economic impact in Scotland, quite apart from the defence impact for the nation as a whole.''
Mr Wishart had earlier taunted the Tories for loving nukes'' and Labour for not knowing whether they are in favour of Trident or not.
He said: We know the Conservative position, they love their nukes and we know that, they are quite happy to spend £167 billion on obscene weapons of mass destruction, a Cold War weapon that can't even start to defend us with the range of threats that we currently face.
We know the (Scottish) National Party's position on this, we've got historic opposition to this and we will suggest a number of ways about how £167 billion might be more usefully spent in terms of social projects.
Who knows? We might even find out what the Labour Party think about Trident, though I'm not holding out any great expectation on that.''