.The big dEE .

27.1.25

LONDON: A government announcement for a nuclear submarine contract took precedence over a debate on climate change in the house of commons on friday.

The minister for defence procurement and industry and labour mp Maria Eagle took commons’ time from 11am sharp to provide “an important development relating to our royal navy submarine fleet that will boost national security and economic growth, and deliver savings to the taxpayer.”

It amounts to a government contract with rolls royce submarines worth around nine billion pounds over eight years.

The nuclear arms announcement interrupted the second reading of the climate and nature bill, a private member’s bill brought by liberal democrat mp doctor Roz Savage.

“The bill’s guiding principle” Savage said before the debate was paused, “is that we have a duty to be good ancestors. Now that we know what we know about the impact that human activity is having on the liveability of our planet, how do we strike the right balance between present and future thriving? How do we ensure that we are not stealing health, wealth and wellbeing from generations not yet born?”

There was no objection by other mps to the focus of the house of commons switching from human vitality and protection of nature to nuclear weapons production.

“We in this House are all passionate about defence … In our increasingly dangerous world, the UK’s nuclear deterrent is our ultimate insurance policy that protects our freedoms and our way of life,” Eagle said.

Labour, conservative and liberal democrat affiliated mps spoke in favour of the contract. Only scottish national party mp Kirsty Blackman spoke against it: “the nuclear defence enterprise for the uk is an extortionate vanity project. We would much rather the money was spent on conventional defence capabilities,” she said.

The debate nearing its end, the glaring irony of nuclear armament interrupting calls for climate protection still had yet to be addressed.

Conservative mp Joe Robertson concluded the sequence from climate change to nuclear arms was logical, considering nuclear armament to be the only path to world peace. All that despite two major wars, at the time of the debate, enabling nuclear armed countries to invade neighbours who are without nuclear weapons.

“Immediately before the minister came to the House, we were debating environmental protections to secure our country and the future of our globe … there is little point in talking about environmental protections and security without also securing our world through robust defence spending,” Robertson said.

“There is nothing worse for the environment and humanity than war, and we need to invest in defence in order to secure our globe and to secure this country,” he added, without mention of Russia or Israel’s peace keeping strategies.

At the end of the debate on nuclear submarines, the deputy speaker Caroline Noakes turned the house back to the climate and nature bill.