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A Labour MP called Jeremy Corbyn 'ill-informed' over Trident

Jeremy Wilson   

A Labour MP called Jeremy Corbyn 'ill-informed' over Trident
Politics2 min read

Jeremy Corbyn

Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

Jeremy Corbyn attends a rally at the Mercure Holland house hotel.

Labour MP Kevan Jones has followed up his resignation from his position as a shadow defence minister by slamming his party leader Jeremy Corbyn over his views on Britain's Trident nuclear weapons programme.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Jones used a question to the Conservative Defence Minister Philip Dunne to bring up what he called the "ill-informed comments" made by Labour over the weekend in relation to Trident.

On Sunday, Corbyn, who is a long-time opponent of nuclear weapons, told BBC journalist Andrew Marr that the UK could potentially keep its Trident submarines, but not have nuclear missiles on board. This would presumably lead to the loss of many highly skilled jobs in the nuclear defence sector.

Here is what Jones said (emphasis ours).

Would the minister agree, that it's not just about the number of jobs involved in the successor programme, but the high skilled nature of those jobs. Despite ill-informed comments from my own party at the weekend with regard to these jobs, would he also agree with me that you can't turn them on and off like a tap when you need them?

You can watch the video below.

And here's the look on Jones's face again when Dunne pays tribute to his "stalwart work" and says he's sorry to see him sitting on the backbenches.

Corbyn replaced his pro-Trident shadow defence minister Maria Eagle with the anti-Trident Emily Thornberry in the recent reshuffle of his shadow cabinet. Thornberry is also carrying out a review of the Labour Party's long-held support for the Trident nuclear weapon programme - something that is making pro-Trident MPs very upset and increasingly vocal.

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