Tri-Service

Cameron Confirms Trident Commitment

David Cameron has confirmed that Britain will order four new Trident submarines. The announcement came during his keynote speech to the Conservative Party Conference.

In the build-up to the general election, the Conservative manifesto included a commitment to maintaining a continuous at-sea deterrent with four Successor submarines - the first of which is intended to enter service in 2028. The Prime Minister said:

"Our independent nuclear deterrent is our ultimate insurance policy – this government will order four new trident submarines".

He added that the government would commit to the NATO defence spending target of two per cent of GDP.

Mr Cameron also pledged to do his "duty as Prime Minister to keep people safe", including eradicating the "death cult" of ISIL, whilst slamming Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's "security-threatening, terrorist-sympathising, Britain-hating ideology."

"The real answer to the refugee crisis lies in helping countries like Syria become places where people actually want to live," he said.

"That means having a government that's not terrorising its people - and that's why Assad must go.

"In its place, we need a government that can be our ally in the defeat of ISIL because we will never be safe here in Britain until we eradicate that death cult."

"Some think we can contract that out to America. We shouldn't. We must play our part too."

The Prime Minister also accused Mr Corbyn of "hating" Britain in his most outspoken attack yet on the new Labour leader.

"Thousands of words have been written about the new Labour leader," he told party members.

"But you only really need to know one thing: he thinks the death of Osama bin Laden was a 'tragedy'.

"No. A tragedy is nearly 3,000 people murdered one morning in New York. A tragedy is the mums and dads who never came home from work that day. A tragedy is people jumping from the towers after the planes hit.

"My friends, we cannot let that man inflict his security-threatening, terrorist-sympathising, Britain-hating ideology on the country we love."

Mr Corbyn faced criticism during the leadership campaign over remarks made in the wake of the 2011 killing of the al Qaeda chief by US special forces - saying it was a "tragedy" that he had been assassinated rather than put on trial.

The view that Bin Laden should have been put on trial rather than killed is one shared by, among other people, Boris Johnson and Barack Obama. The latter had hoped the terrorist would surrender during the US Special Forces raid on his Pakistan compound.