Fallon brands Corbyn 'security risk' on Trident and drone strikes

The defence secretary, Michael Fallon, has portrayed Jeremy Corbyn as a security risk after the Labour leader went against his party on Trident and refused to state whether he would order drone strikes against terrorist leaders.

Fallon seized on remarks made by Corbyn in an interview on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, when he gave a series of equivocal answers on military decisions.

Corbyn suggested renewing Trident would be part of Labour’s defence review and said he would want to know what could be achieved by ordering a drone strike if the intelligence services located the whereabouts of the leader of Islamic State.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Fallon said: “Yesterday we had the staggering performance of somebody who wants to be prime minister saying he wouldn’t necessarily authorise strikes against terrorists. He’s against the nuclear deterrent; would stop building the submarines which we have already started building; he wouldn’t control our borders; and earlier he has even questioned our Nato deployment.”

Fallon said a Conservative government would be prepared to use nuclear weapons. “In the most extreme circumstances you can’t rule out the use of nuclear weapons as a first strike,” he said.

But Fallon refused to specify those circumstances, adding: “The whole point about the deterrent is that you have got to leave uncertainty in the mind of anybody who might be thinking of using weapons against this country.”

Asked about a string of senior military figures who regard Trident as useless as a deterrent, Fallon said: “You will often find some military figures who will prefer to spend more money on conventional weapons than on nuclear ... but it is better to have the deterrent because you cannot be sure that ... nobody might use a weapon against us.”

He praised “brave Labour MPs” who backed the renewal of Trident. Fallon said: “Jeremy Corbyn made it absolutely clear that he is still against the deterrent, and he was then corrected by his own party. So we had chaos from Labour last night, which doubles the security risk to this country when you have somebody standing to be prime minister who his own party is then having to correct. And you are left completely unsure as to what would actually happen to our nuclear deterrent.

“This is somebody who would certainly put the security of our country at risk. And if you want stronger and stable leadership then it has to be Theresa May and the Conservatives.”

Earlier, Labour’s general election chief, Andrew Gwynne, confirmed that renewing Trident will not be part of Labour’s defence review, despite Corbyn’s comments. “We are committed to renewing the Trident system,” said Gwynne, who is a shadow minister without portfolio.

Asked about Corbyn’s claim that “all aspects” of defence policy would be subject to review, Gwynne told the Today programme: “The Labour party is very clear we are committed to a credible nuclear credibility at the minimum end of the scale. That is Labour party policy and it will be in the manifesto.”

Asked about Corbyn’s refusal to consider using nuclear weapons, Gwynne said: “No prime minister has ever been put in the position where they have had to consider using them.

“We would not be in a position where the first choice would be to press that red button. It is a deterrent because we have them. We believe in multilateralism, we believe in negotiating away our nuclear weapons system to create a nuclear weapon free world.”