Theresa May, making her first appearance in parliament as prime minister, led the debate to pave the way for the building of four nuclear ballistic submarines, its Trident system.
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MPs have voted in favour of renewing the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system by 472 votes to 117, majority 355.
The issue is highly controversial in the Labour Party as, although it is current Labour Party policy to endorse the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system, the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is strongly opposed to renewal.
Party leader Mr Corbyn – a lifelong opponent of nuclear weapons – voted against replacing the deterrent but was forced to give his MPs a free vote after pressure from unions, who warned 45,000 jobs around the country were dependent on the programme.
It had been reported that Mr Corbyn would set out Labour’s official policy as well as stating his own personal view, but there was anger as his speech continued and there was no sign of him doing so.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales said in a statement ahead of the vote that they prayed that the decision taken by parliament would include the intention to “complete the elimination” of nuclear weapons.
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He argued there were only eight countries with nuclear weapons, out of a global community of around 200.
“The sheer stupidity of this approach should be dragged out into the light and seen for what it is, because no only is renewal Labour Party policy, it is the settled will of the country, and every parliamentary decision relating to it will have been taken by 2020”.
But Labour MP Toby Perkins, who last month resigned as shadow armed forces minister, compared Labour frontbench opposition to Trident with the arguments “of a 13-year-old”.
MPs have overwhelmingly given the go-ahead to a new generation of nuclear weaponry by approving the replacement of the ageing Trident submarine fleet.
The Trident fleet is based at HMNB Clyde, in Faslane, but all Scottish MPs taking part in the vote except for Scottish Secretary David Mundell, were against the renewal.
“It is ridiculous that when there is a clear Labour policy on this issue no one is sure whether our Shadow Defence team and the leader of our party will vote for, against or abstain”.
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The statement, which was met with shocked exclamations, came in response to Scottish National Party’s George Kerevan challenging question: “Are you prepared to authorize a nuclear strike that could kill hundreds of thousands of men, women and children?”
