§ Mr. Lathamasked the Prime Minister whether she will list in specific terms the grounds of objection of Her Majesty's Government to a freeze on nuclear weapons; and whether she will make a statement.
§ Mr. BiffenI have been asked to reply.
A nuclear weapons freeze would freeze Soviet superiority in a range of important weapons systems and remove the principal incentive for the Russians to negotiate reductions in nuclear arsenals. Some elements of a freeze would be extremely difficult to verify, and the negotiations required would take attention away from the search for balanced reductions in nuclear weapons, to which we give the highest priority. The Government's attitude to a nuclear freeze is contained in the recent FC0- MOD leaflet, "Defence and Disarmament Issues—No. 3", a copy of which is being sent to my hon. Friend.