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Trident

I will not give way at the moment; I am laying out our position on this issue. If a week is a long time in politics, seven years is a very long time and we are making this decision seven years before, according to the Government’s own White Paper, a final decision will be taken and, on the estimation of the Defence Committee, seven years before a decision needs to be taken. We will do enormous damage to Britain’s role and the part that we can play at the 2010 conference if, before that conference takes place, we declare that we will remain a nuclear power until 2055. We will forgo any opportunity whatever to play a leading part at that conference and be a force for good.