NUCLEAR DETERRENT (Hansard, 25 January 1966)

§ Q4. Mr. Mikardo
asked the Prime Minister if, following his meeting with President Johnson, he will state Her Majesty's Government's present policies in respect of nuclear weapons.

§ Q12. Mr. Marten
asked the Prime Minister what progress he has made since the beginning of December in the sharing of Great Britain's nuclear deterrent.

§ The Prime Minister
Our policy is unchanged from that stated in this House on many occasions. Progress in internationalising the deterrent is being sought through the special committee of defence Ministers set up in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

§ Mr. Mikardo
As some of the statements to which my right hon. Friend refers are a little obscure, could he say simply, for the benefit of a simple mind like mine, what, if anything, remains of the policy of giving up the independent British nuclear deterrent on which he and I and all of us on this side of the House fought the last election?

§ The Prime Minister
I do not agree with the major premise about the simplicity of my hon. Friend's mind, but on 16th December, 1964, as my hon. Friend knows, I described this in greater length than would be possible at Question Time, and our position is that we are seeking, on terms which will stop the spread of nuclear weapons, to have the so-called independent British deterrent internationalised within the alliance.

§ Mr. Marten
Does the right hon. Gentleman recall that, in the last foreign affairs debate just before Christmas, he said that the Government accepted a worldwide defence rôle? If this is so—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. The hon. Gentleman must not refer in questions to debates in the current Session of Parliament.

§ Mr. Marten
If it is the Government's policy that there should now be a worldwide defence rôle for this country, shall we not need our nuclear deterrent in areas outside N.A.T.O., and ought we not, therefore, to keep it independent or at least have the right to withdraw it from N.A.T.O.?

§ The Prime Minister
The position about the right of withdrawal from N.A.T.O. was fully stated previously, and there has been no change in that. With regard to the wider defence rôle, the hon. Gentleman must await the statement which will follow the present defence review and the talks in Washington this week. I have said many times that it is our role to internationalise the deterrent in the N.A.T.O. context and in other parts of the world.

§ Mr. Heath
Should not the right hon. Gentleman enlighten his hon. Friend by adding that if after the talks in Washington the Government decide to buy the F111 they will be not only maintaining 30 the nuclear delivery capacity of this country but increasing it?

§ The Prime Minister
That is a very interesting suggestion. No decision has been taken about the F111, but it is a very interesting suggestion from the right hon. Gentleman that what he considers to be an independent deterrent will be more effective with the F111 than with his TSR2, which this Government had to cancel. We are concerned at the moment with two things. One is the Polaris submarine programme, which we have fully debated and which will be internationalised. The other is the existing bombers, whatever nuclear rôle they have, and, as we have said, these also should and must be internationalised.

§ Mr. Heath
Will the right hon. Gentleman give a clear answer, yes or no? If he decides to purchase the F111, will it increase the nuclear delivery capacity of this country or not? In fact, it will.

§ The Prime Minister
If the right hon. Gentleman will put a clear question, he will get a clear answer. As to the way in which he has now formulated the question, if there were a purchase of another aircraft which had the power to deliver bombs—we have already got the Canberras, as he knows—if there were such a purchase it would increase the power of delivery, but this is going to be internationalised. [Interruption.] The right hon. Gentleman's belief that we have an independent deterrent is, of course, a completely false assumption from the start. What we have will be internationalised with or without any further purchase of aircraft.