No 10: MoD sovereign territory plans for Trident base not credible
MoD proposal to designate Faslane as UK sovereign military base if Scots vote for independence sparks Whitehall row
Downing Street has dismissed as not “credible or sensible” a proposal to designate the Faslane base, which hosts Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent, as sovereign United Kingdom territory if the people of Scotland vote for independence in next year’s referendum.
No 10’s dismissal of the idea followed an overnight row in Whitehall after the Guardian reported that the government is examining plans to ensure that the Faslane base on Gare Loch in Argyll and Bute could have the same status as the British sovereign military bases in Cyprus in the event of a Yes vote.
The Guardian report, which came as the former Labour chancellor and Scottish MP Alistair Darling sets out the case for Scotland remaining within the UK, prompted the Scottish National party (SNP) to accuse London of seeking to bully Edinburgh.
A No 10 spokesman said: “This government has not commissioned contingency plans over Faslane. No such ideas have come to the secretary of state or the prime minister. They would not support them if they did. It is not a credible or sensible idea.”
The Guardian said on Wednesday that Ministry of Defence officials were starting to examine plans to ensure that the Vanguard submarines could remain at the deep-water Faslane base and nuclear warheads could continue to be stored at the nearby Coulport base on Loch Long.
One source close to a senior cabinet minister said of the MoD’s interest in the sovereign base idea: “What a ridiculous thing to say. Talk about handing a gift on a plate to the SNP.”
The Guardian reported that, ahead of next year’s referendum, the MoD was officially working on only one option for the Faslane base – a defeat for the SNP. An MoD spokesperson told the Guardian: “No contingency plans are being made to move Trident out of Scotland. The scale and cost of any potential relocation away from Faslane would be enormous.”
But a defence source said that the idea of designating Faslane as sovereign UK territiory in the event of an SNP victory was being taken seriously. The source said: “It would cost a huge amount of money, running into tens of billions of pounds, to decommission Faslane. Those costs would be factored into any negotiations on an independence settlement. The sovereign base area is an option. It is an interesting idea because the costs of moving out of Faslane are eye wateringly high.”
A version of this was emailed to the BBC which ran a story on its website overnight which said: “Faslane Trident base could be in UK after Scottish independence“. The MoD emailed the BBC to say: “The sovereign base area is an option. It is an interesting idea.”
Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP’s deputy first minister, said: “Downing Street may now be denying this preposterous threat from the Ministry of Defence, but the cat is out of the bag that the UK government must at least be examining …read more
