Conference Speech, Spring 2023: Maintaining a continuous nuclear deterrent at sea

Liberal Democrats have agreed that the UK should maintain a continuous at sea nuclear deterrent in light of Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine.

Speaking in favour of the motion to reverse the previous position on the nuclear deterrent at the LibDems national Spring conference in York this weekend, Epsom & Ewell’s LibDem prospective Parliamentary candidate and former Army Captain Helen Maguire said that while LibDems supported a nuclear-free world, the current actions by Vladimir Putin in Ukraine meant that the LibDems position had to change.

“When we last considered the situation (in 2017), the world was in a very different place - there was war but there hadn’t been the veiled threats around the use of nuclear weapons nor the potential for World War Three”.

“We have now entered an age when a nation, Russia, believes it’s ok to invade another country - completely defying the rule of International Law. It’s not just Russia, in this volatile age, there are other countries whose intentions we don’t yet fully understand - China.

“We want to deter any country/group/enemy from ever considering invading/attacking the UK. It sends a powerful message to those who would do us harm- don’t you dare try!

“If we continued the course of medium responsiveness with no continuous deployment then this wouldn’t achieve our mission to protect the UK. This would leave us exposed to very real threats and it would weaken our credibility amongst our allies.

“The continuous at sea deterrent provides a 24/7 365 days a year effective defence mechanism for the UK and we need it NOW more than ever before,” said Helen.

The motion to maintain the current posture of continuous at-sea deterrence was then passed by the Conference.

To read our full policy on the UK’s nuclear deterrent, click here.