HC Deb 13 May 1980 vol 984 cc1028-30
5. Mr. Marlow

asked the Secretary of State for Defence whether he will investigate the setting up of a European independent nuclear deterrent.

The Under-Secretary of State for Defence for the Royal Navy (Mr. Keith Speed)

No, Sir. I refer my hon. Friend to the answer that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence gave him on 28 April.

Mr. Marlow

I accept that it is desirable that we should continue to benefit from the American nuclear umbrella, and therefore that we should encourage its continuance, but does my hon. Friend agree that the final decision does not rest with us? Is it not possible at least that, should the Russians put a foot in Western Germany, the Americans would not be prepared to swap their cities for Russian cities on the basis of defending Europe? Therefore, would it not be prudent to get together with our European partners, particularly the French and Germans, with a view to setting up an independent European nuclear deterrent?

Mr. Speed

No. The non-proliferation treaty does not allow other European countries which do not already possess them to have control over nuclear weapons. I am sure that the security of the Western Alliance rests on our determination jointly to resist aggression in a collective way. I cannot accept my hon. Friend's suggestion.

Mr. Heffer

Has not the time come for the Government, and everybody else, to work towards a European nuclear-free zone, for the people actively to campaign for that and to say clearly that it is time that Britain got rid if its nuclear weapons?

Mr. Speed

I remind the hon. Gentleman that Europe includes the Soviet Union.

Mr. Churchill

Bearing in mind the enormous cost of the Polaris replacement if it is to be based on the United States Trident submarine-launched system, does my hon. Friend exclude from his consideration of options for the Polaris successor a land-based missile to be developed jointly by France, Britain and the Federal Republic of Germany?

Mr. Speed

All options for the Polaris successor are still open, and discussions are taking place on the question of a launcher for the appropriate missile. I remind my hon. Friend that the non-proliferation treaty does not allow other European countries to have control over nuclear weapons. They are debarred from that. The Federal German Republic has no wish to have such control, and there is no indication that France wishes joint control. I reiterate that the security of the Western Alliance is an important factor in our standing together. I do not believe that it would help NATO or the Alliance to follow the course that my hon. Friend suggests.

Mr. Ioan Evans

Because the United State of America and the Soviet Union possess enough nuclear weapons to blow up the planet 17 times, would it not be better to concentrate on preventing the proliferation of those weapons and reducing the existing nuclear stock?

Mr. Speed

Various discussions have taken place over the past two years on that matter. In the debate in January my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for the Army had a great deal to say about the initiatives taken by the West along those lines.