A former advisor to United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix has said that using nuclear weapons would now be considered a war crime by the international community. Dr Rebecca Johnson, director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, told the CND international conference in London: “Any use of nuclear weapons would be a crime against humanity and a war crime.”
The expert on weapons of mass destruction said there had been a sea change in world opinion in the last year, with many countries now calling for a nuclear weapons convention.
CND chair Kate Hudson called on the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition Government to scrap Trident and Jeremy Corbyn, Labour MP for Islington North, said it was absurd that Britain’s “independent nuclear deterrent” appears to be exempt from the current debate about public expenditure.
He said: “We are having a defence review but the people involved are disconnected from reality.” He argued that the cuts do not have to be as severe as the Government wants “and could be addressed by scrapping Trident and cracking down on tax loopholes.”
