Trident - Not in the Liberal Democrats name!

6.11.00pm GMT Fri 26th Jan 2007

Nick Harvey, Liberal Democrat Shadow Defence Secretary

From time to time the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Team issue various useful documents to its key activists to help them campaign in the field, I am sure all parties do this and I find it incredibly useful. However the latest one - on - Trident - way oversteps the mark.

In the latest it says "Liberal Democrats believe that Britain should cut its stockpile by half, retaining no more than 100 warheads with each submarine carrying no more than 24 warheads."

But actually we don't the 2005 general election manifesto talked about "a new round of multilateral arms reduction talks and retain the UK's current minimum nuclear deterrent for the foreseeable future, until sufficient progress has been made towards the global elimination of such weapons." Conference has yet to decide on the Liberal Democrat policy and what the Liberal Democrats believe!

I know the Parliamentary Party is not bound by Conference, I know this from a past battle, but they really should not be putting out misleading information which is all this is.