GREENS co-leader Patrick Harvie has urged the Labour UK Government to scrap Trident and use its funding to reinstate the Winter Fuel Payment and scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Speaking on the UN International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, Harvie said weapons of mass destruction are an “obscene moral evil”.
He accused the Labour Government of “marching in lockstep with the Tories” in giving the Trident nuclear weapons programme – housed at Faslane on the Gare Loch– a “bottomless pit of money” while keeping policies such as the two-child cap in place.
Harvie said: “Nuclear weapons are an obscene moral evil that should have no place in 21st-century society. Yet, there are still vast numbers of warheads scattered across the planet, and hundreds of them are based here in Scotland on the Clyde.
“The Labour Government claim that they cannot afford to give pensioners the winter fuel allowance or scrap the two-child benefit cap, yet they are yet again marching in lockstep with the Tories in committing to giving the nuclear weapons programme a bottomless pit of money.
“The eye-watering sums that are being poured into nuclear weapons would be far better spent lifting children and families out of poverty and tackling the climate crisis, which is the greatest security threat we face.
“But even if Trident had no cost implications, keeping it would still be totally immoral. There can never be any justification for weapons which are only capable of indiscriminate mass killing, or the brutal legacy such as those left by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 80 years ago.”
Harvie added he looked forward to the day “an independent Scotland can rid nuclear weapons from our waters”.
The Labour leadership were dealt a blow earlier this week when union backers voted against the Winter Fuel Payment cut.
Though the vote is non-binding, it is likely to be seen as embarrassing for the party so early in its tenure in Government.
The benefit – which was given to everyone in the receipt of the state pension – will now only be give to pensioners who receive Pension Credit or other means-tested benefits.
It was confirmed on Thursday morning a pair of pensioners from Coatbridge are seeking to take the UK and Scottish governments to court over the cut.
Peter and Florence Fanning have raised proceedings with the help of the Govan Law Centre against the Scottish Government and the UK Work and Pensions Secretary over the policy.
The judicial review – which has been raised at the Court of Session – now requires a judge’s approval to move to a hearing on the merits, with the Govan Law Centre seeking to expedite both the case and its application for legal aid to ensure a decision can be handed down before the winter.
The case asks the court to rule on whether the decision was unlawful, which would then allow the petitioners to ask the court to, in effect, set aside the policy and restore the winter fuel payment to all.
