Toby Perkins
Main Page: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)Department Debates - View all Toby Perkins's debates with the Ministry of Defence
Trident: Test Firing
Toby Perkins Excerpts(7 years, 3 months ago)
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Sir Michael Fallon
No, there has not. Previous Governments have not given details of previous demonstration and shakedown operations to Parliament.
Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)
The replacement of the Trident submarine system enjoys the support of not only the majority of Members of Parliament but, so polls tell us, the majority of people in every one of the four nations of the United Kingdom. Does the Secretary of State recognise that the way in which information is coming out—more has been revealed by the US Defence Department than in this Parliament in the past hour—massively undermines confidence in the system, which we need all the public to have?
Sir Michael Fallon
No, I do not agree, and I do not think that members of the public agree either. I think they understand that the effectiveness of the deterrent depends on the secrecy that is needed about the detail of its operation.