The House of Commons backed the renewal of the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system by 472 votes to 117.
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David Mundell, the only Tory MP in Scotland was the only Scottish MP to vote for Trident; the rest of the 59 MPs voted against renewal.
Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs today that scrapping Trident would be grossly irresponsible – a move that would weaken Britain’s security and please our enemies more than anybody else.
Asked directly whether she would authorise a strike which could kill 100,000 innocent people, she replied: “Yes”.
Political divisions about whether to replace the Trident submarines, agreed in principle by parliament in 2007, have raised questions about Britain’s standing as a world power, amplified by a vote to leave the European Union.
The vote will decide whether to press ahead with the manufacture of the next generation of nuclear submarines, BBC reported.
The Trident programme replaces the country’s fleet of nuclear-armed submarines with four new vessels at an estimated cost of $54bn over the next 20 years.
He was, he said, “deeply concerned about the spiraling costs” of renewal, said that a nuclear deterrent was not the best response to new threats such as that posed by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), and urged the government to “step up to the plate and promote rapid nuclear disarmament” internationally.
Only one Conservative Party member, Reigate MP Crispin Blunt, voted against renewal, while 322 supported the motion.
In a statement to the Telegraph, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said that a vote to renew Trident will show that despite the Brexit vote “we are certainly not turning our back on the security of Europe and the rest of the world”.
“People of faith say it is never permissible to use nuclear weapons or to threaten to commit mass murder with nuclear weapons”.
Mr Corbyn repeated his position that he would not be prepared to press the nuclear button if he was in Number 10, arguing that threatening “mass murder” was not the way to handle worldwide relations.
“We must continually convince any potential aggressors that the benefits of an attack on Britain are far outweighed by their consequences”, the Prime Minister added.
Labour MPs were subject to a free vote, with leader Jeremy Corbyn declaring he would oppose the motion – a stance which led to strong criticism from some of his backbenchers.
Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the National Assembly for Wales building in Cardiff, Wales for a bilateral meeting with the First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones Monday July 18, 2016.
She added: “Britain’s nuclear deterrent is an insurance policy we simply can not do without”.
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Green Party MP Caroline Lucas also said that the United Kingdom could not try and deter others from developing nuclear weapons if it renewed its own programme.
