The Trident Debate

By Natalie Powell @NatalieDPowell

With less than a month to go to the UK's General Election, British Defence has found itself the focus of debate.

The UK Trident nuclear programme is at the heart of election clashes, with the Conservative party accusing the opposition Labour party of putting the country's nuclear deterrent at risk.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon warned that a Labour Government would enter into a deal with the Scottish National Party (SNP), which would see the scrapping of the Trident programme in return for the SNP's support.

Mr Fallon hit out at Labour's leader with personal remarks in an interview with the Times newspaper saying: "Ed Miliband stabbed his own brother in the back to become Labour leader. Now he is willing to stab the United Kingdom in the back to become prime minister."

The leader of the Scottish National Party, Nicola Sturgeon has offered to help Labour's Ed Miliband become the next prime minister by entering a coalition government with his party. However during a televised debate on Tuesday, Ms Sturgeon said that Trident was a red line and under no circumstances would the SNP support it.

Labour meanwhile has hit back at the Conservative party's comments, accusing Mr Fallon of 'mud-slinging' and saying Prime Minister David Cameron's campaign was based on 'deceit and lies'.

Ed Miliband insisted that Labour remained committed to continuing the Trident programme, by building new submarines to replace the ageing fleet which carry the nuclear missiles.

He has suggested the possibility or reducing their number from four to three, but said Labour's position at the moment was to stick with four.