Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘peace minister’ has been accused of flouting Labour policy by publicly demanding Trident be scrapped.
Fabian Hamilton sparked a fresh bout of infighting after MailOnline uncovered footage of him openly condemning the nuclear deterrent.
The Leeds MP is also due to give a talk at party conference on ‘how to protect workers in the event of scrapping Trident’.
Critics said the leadership was using ‘devious’ tactics to try and reopen the issue, after Mr Corbyn failed to impose his own views.
Labour has been wracked by divisions over the nuclear deterrent since Mr Corbyn became leader three years ago.
The veteran left-winger is a life-long supporter of unilateral disarmament, and is still vice president of CND.
Fabian Hamilton sparked a fresh bout of infighting after MailOnline uncovered footage of him openly condemning the nuclear deterrent
Labour has been wracked by divisions over the nuclear deterrent since Jeremy Corbyn (pictured on a visit to Leicester this month) became leader three years ago
Mr Hamilton highlighted his appearance at the CND fringe meeting, which is taking place on Monday, on Twitter
Critics point out that the principle of the Trident deterrent (test launch pictured) is completely undermined if hostile states like Russia believe it would not be deployed
But despite Mr Corbyn vowing that he would never use Trident as PM, Labour’s official policy is to support renewal of the weapons system.
A majority of the party’s MPs voted in favour of renewal in 2016, and it would take a formal decision by conference to change the stance.
Mr Corbyn himself now avoids openly stating his views on the deterrent, merely insisting that the party is committed to renewal.
However, in an interview with the Trident Ploughshares anti-nuclear weapons group, dated June this year, Mr Hamilton said Trident should be scrapped.
He referred to the fact that party policy supported Trident renewal – but openly condemned the deterrent.
‘It (Labour) should be a party of nuclear disarmament. It isn’t at the moment. That is a source of sadness to me,’ he said in the footage.
‘I need to win this argument as shadow minister for peace and disarmament. But you need to carry on putting that pressure on elected members, on party members…
‘You need to keep up that effort and that profile you’ve had making the case for Britain to sign the treaty, to get rid of its nuclear weapons.
‘They are not a deterrent in my view, and they are certainly far too expensive, and they are certainly not independent.
‘Let’s use that money for life-enhancing expenditure on our health service, on our public transport system even on our conventional defence… but not on these terrible weapons of mass destruction that can only result in the end of life on Earth.’
Labour’s former security minister Lord West, who served in the Royal Navy as First Sea Lord, said there seemed to be ‘pretty devious business’ going on over the nuclear deterrent.
‘This is totally against party policy. Our policy is to keep it,’ he said.
‘He is making up new policy.
‘What it makes you think is that although the Labour Party decided we would keep it, Jeremy Corbyn and some of his acolytes do not agree with that.
‘They know there would be a huge backlash on the jobs side. But that should not be the basis on which we do our defence policy.
‘What frightened him (last time) at the Labour Conference from going any further was that he did not want it to be the big issue.
Mr Hamilton (pictured left) was appointed in 2016 with a brief to ‘reduce violence, war and conflict’. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell (pictured right) risked fuelling Labour splits earlier this month by insisting he would not use Trident under any circumstances
Labour’s former security minister Lord West said there seemed to be ‘pretty devious business’ going on over the nuclear deterrent
‘But now he has got so much else going on he doesn’t care.’
Lord West added: It seems party discipline is a thing of the past, but it is not the way that I have been brought up to think people should behave.’
Mr Hamilton highlighted his appearance at the CND fringe meeting, which is taking place on Monday, on Twitter yesterday.
He said he was looking forward to speaking ‘on defence diversification and how to protect workers in the event of scrapping Trident’.
Labour sources said the party’s policy was clear, and Mr Hamilton was tasked with pursuing multilateral disarmament.
Supporters of the deterrent point out that the principle is completely undermined if hostile states like Russia believe it would not be deployed.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell risked fuelling Labour splits earlier this month by insisting he would not use Trident under any circumstances.
He also told the New Statesman Britain should not have had nuclear weapons during the Cold War.
Both Labour and the Tories are committed to multilateral disarmament.
Mr Corbyn floated the idea of creating a ‘peace minister’ during his leadership campaign, and Mr Hamilton was appointed the following year with a brief to ‘reduce violence, war and conflict’.