Concern at cabinet reshuffle
No Liberal Democrats remain at the MoD following recent reshuffle
Concern has been expressed at the decision to remove Liberal Democrat Nick Harvey from his post as minister for the armed forces.
The recent cabinet reshuffle now leaves no Liberal Democrats in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) at a time when the party have been arguing for an alternative to the replacement of Trident.
Nick Harvey was running the ‘Trident Alternatives Review’ – a coalition agreement concession that allowed the Liberal Democrats to review and present alternative options to the Trident nuclear weapons system.
Kate Hudson, general secretary of the Campaign Against Nuclear Disarmament, said: ‘This is a blow to all those inside and outside the Liberal Democrats who want Trident to be reviewed.
‘Even though they are not opposed to nuclear weapons outright, they, and Nick Harvey, forced the Conservatives to conduct a Trident Alternatives Review and he pushed the review forward. Now this lone dissenting voice has been purged from the MoD.’
It is not clear what the implications will be for the future of the Trident Alternatives Review.
Kate Hudson added that ‘it will be a hard struggle to argue against such huge and unacceptable MoD expenditure from outside the department’.
Comments
As a friend and a Liberal Democrat member I can say that the party is still fully committed the Trident Review process.
By jmcatling on 14th September 2012 - 20:09
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