Facts
After Keir Starmer said his commitment to the UK’s nuclear deterrent was absolute at a speech on defence policy on 3 June 2024, journalists questioned him over whether the same applied to his deputy, Angela Rayner. Later that day, Rayner posted on X: “I fully support Labour’s triple lock on Trident. I’ve never supported unilateral disarmament. Our nuclear deterrent is more important than ever in a world where Putin’s war is on Europe’s doorstep.”
Rayner has changed her mind on Trident, the UK’s only nuclear weapons system, since voting against its renewal in the House of Commons on 18 July 2016. Finding herself in a minority, she defiantly tweeted that evening: “I stand by my vote against.” The motion Rayner opposed expressed support for “the UK’s independent minimum credible nuclear deterrent.”
Rayner has given no indication that she voted against the renewal of Trident in order to replace it with an alternative form of nuclear deterrence. When she was running to be Labour’s deputy leader in 2020, she referred back to her vote on Trident as evidence of her commitment to a nuclear weapons-free world. In response to the campaign group Labour CND (campaign for nuclear disarmament), she wrote: “I want a world without nuclear weapons and that’s what I want a Labour government to work towards. When the last Tory government tabled their motion to renew Trident in the House of Commons, I voted against it.”
Not renewing Trident could conceivably be agreed as part of a multilateral disarmament process, but had the UK decided not to renew the weapons system in 2016 it would have been widely regarded as a unilateral act.
Verdict
It is possible that Rayner’s assertion that “I’ve never supported unilateral disarmament” can coexist with her 2016 vote against renewing Trident, but it appears more likely that her views changed with the political climate.
We emailed Angela Rayner’s office and Labour offering them the chance to respond. We received no response.