13 March 2007 - Euro-MPs in Strasbourg are to vote on a resolution condemning any UK decision to upgrade its Trident nuclear weapons arsenal.

The vote, which follows a debate in the European Parliament today, will add to the pressure on Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to back down on their plans to spend some £76bn replacing Trident – a decision likely to be endorsed in the House of Commons tomorrow thanks to the support of Conservative MPs.

More than 100 Labour MPs have already signalled that they will instead vote for an amendment calling for the decision to be delayed, and the issue has already claimed more than one ministerial scalp.

Caroline Lucas, South-East England’s Green MEP and a national council member at the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said: “Replacing Trident would be immoral, illegal and utterly irrelevant to the real security threats we face today, chief among them climate change. It would also be a huge waste of taxpayers’ cash that could better spent on tackling climate change or improving essential public services.”

She made her comments as the Green group of MEPs tabled an amendment to a discussion of a forthcoming Non-Proliferation Treaty planning conference in Vienna condemning the UK and French governments for undermining EU non-proliferation efforts.

The discussion opened with the EU’s External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner warning MEPs that ‘nuclear proliferation is potentially the greatest security threat we face’.

During the debate Dr Lucas, who is also a co-founder and Co-President of the EU’s cross-party peace group, said: “How ironic then that tomorrow the UK Government wants to agree a replacement for Trident – a decision that will fuel the very proliferation of which the Commissioner warns.

“It is completely hypocritical for us to be lecturing Iran on its illegal nuclear weapons programme when we are pursuing our own.

“The UK and French nuclear arsenals are actively undermining the EU’s commitment to nuclear non-proliferation, and I hope my fellow MEPs will join me in condemning any decision to replace or upgrade them."

ENDS