Prime Minister Liz Truss set to pen doomsday letters at Downing Street
The PM who went on CND marches must write to Trident sub commanders
Last updated 6th Sep 2022
The appointment of Liz Truss as Prime Minister will mark the conclusion of a remarkable political journey from a schoolgirl who took part in 'Ban the Bomb' marches in the 1980s to the person with ultimate responsibility for the UK's arsenal of nuclear weapons.
One of the first jobs for a PM when the move into Downing Street is to write the so-called 'Letters of Last Resort' on what should happen in the event of a nuclear war.
These are four, handwritten, identical letters sent to the commanders of the nuclear-armed Vanguard class submarines at Faslane which provide the UK's continuous deterrent patrols.
Secret letters
The letters, which are kept locked in a safe on board the boats, contain orders on what action to take if an enemy nuclear strike has destroyed the British government, and has killed or otherwise incapacitated both the Prime Minister and their designated "second person".
The letters are among the most secret of all Government documents and it's never been revealed what has been written in them.
If the letters are not used during the term of the Prime Minister who wrote them, they are destroyed when that person never leaves office, having never been opened.
"No commitment to disarmament"
It will be a moment that the young Liz Truss could never have imagined when she joined her parents on CND protests, carrying homemade nuclear missiles made of cardboard, covered in flowery wallpaper.
The new Conservative party leader changed her views, and embraced the nuclear deterrent, many years ago and Lynn Jamieson, the chair of CND Scotland is telling heat radio News its unlikely any of her parents' beliefs will rub off on her now she's Prime Minister.
"I don't think it's of any great relevance that she's a former CND campaigner since she clearly has no commitment to nuclear disarmament at the moment," she says.
"It's time that people got real about nuclear disarmament. That's hard in the middle of a European conflict in Ukraine but the UK is one of the countries which could start to become serious about it.
"The missiles of a single submarine would do enough damage to affect everyone in the Northern Hemisphere."