Members of the House of Commons, Britain's elected lower house of parliament, will be given a vote on whether Britain should renew its nuclear deterrent force, a cabinet minister said Thursday.
Prime Minister Tony Blair paved the way "two weeks ago when he did point out that we were the first government to give the house a vote over decisions to go to war," House leader Jack Straw said.
"Of course we should involve the house fully in a decision as important as the renewal of our nuclear deterrent," Straw said.
"And in practical terms it is inevitable that there will therefore be a chance for the house to express its view on this important matter in a vote," Straw added.
Straw did not say whether members of parliament from the governing Labour Party would be given a free vote on replacing the Trident nuclear missile system.
Britain's current nuclear deterrent was set up in the 1980s by then prime minister Margaret Thatcher, when the Soviet Union — not global terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda — was seen as the primary threat.
It is based on four Royal Navy submarines fitted with US-built Trident missiles which are due to become obsolete in the 2020s. One of the submarines is always on patrol, but the missiles are no longer pre-targeted.
Replacing the deterrent is likely to cost anywhere from 10 billion to 25 billion pounds (14.6 billion to 36.4 billion euros, 18.6 billion to 46.1 billion dollars), observers say.
Source: Agence France-Presse
