Nuclear Proliferation (Hansard, 9 January 1996)

§ 8. Lady Olga Maitland
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is his current assessment of the threat posed by nuclear proliferation. [6345]

§ Mr. Arbuthnot
The threat posed by potential nuclear proliferation remains serious, and the Government continue to make strenuous efforts to prevent such proliferation.

§ Lady Olga Maitland
I thank my hon. Friend for his reply. Bearing in mind the continuing threat from nuclear proliferation, does he agree that it is important that we retain our independent nuclear deterrent, which is a credible defence for this nation and sends out a very clear message? Does he further agree that there would not be such a clear message should the Labour party come to power, with its proposals in its defence review, which would indeed just whittle away and, finally, ditch our own deterrent, which is the guarantee of our security?

§ Mr. Arbuthnot
My hon. Friend is right. The Labour party would play hokey cokey with our nuclear deterrent. It does not believe in the nuclear deterrent when it says that it does. But sometimes it says that it does not, and still it does not.

§ Mr. Wareing
If the Government are so supportive of non-proliferation, does that include the south Pacific? How does the Government's policy of supporting French nuclear tests square with the policies that the Minister has outlined now? Will the Government declare a unilateral moratorium on British testing?

§ Mr. Arbuthnot
It may have escaped the hon. Gentleman's notice that the French Government already possess nuclear weapons, so it is not really a question of non-proliferation. The French Government were given advice that they should test their weapons to pursue safety, and we could not possibly question that. We have already declared that we will abide by the US moratorium, so there is no need for us to take the step that the hon. Gentleman suggests.