Non-Nuclear Policy Won’t Hurt NATO, British Laborites Assert

Britain’s opposition Labor Party formally announced its controversial non-nuclear defense policy Wednesday and rejected accusations that it would weaken the NATO alliance.

The policy is likely to be a major election issue.

Labor leader Neil Kinnock, accusing the Conservative government itself of weakening the North Atlantic Treaty Organization by running down conventional arms to pay for expensive new nuclear weapons, said, “The choice is between nuclear pretense and real defense.”

At a news conference, Labor leaders denied that their plans to scrap Britain’s Polaris nuclear deterrent, cancel a $14-billion contract to replace it with the U.S. Trident system and close all U.S. nuclear bases in Britain would damage NATO.

Policy Defended

“The Labor Party believes that its defense policy, particularly if accompanied by similar decisions in other countries, will so strengthen NATO conventional forces in Europe as to rule out military aggression,” Labor’s foreign affairs spokesman Denis Healey said.

The policy, which was ratified at the party’s annual conference in September, was immediately condemned by the Social Democrats, partners in the centrist Alliance, and the ruling Conservatives.

It has already been criticized by U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and Assistant Secretary Richard N. Perle who said it could lead to an American withdrawal from Europe.

“There is no doubt that the policies which the Labor Party is advocating today would gravely threaten the future of NATO,” Defense Secretary George Younger told a news conference. “Giving up those weapons in a one-sided gesture would leave us without any means of resisting Soviet pressure or nuclear blackmail.”

Plans Denounced

Social Democratic leader David Owen denounced Labor’s plan as “a policy for a fearful, neutralist and third-rate Britain” and predicted that it would be rejected by traditional Labor voters.

With general elections expected next year, latest opinion polls have indicated that nearly a third of voters cited Labor’s defense policy as the main reason they would not be voting for the party.

Defending the non-nuclear policy, Labor defense spokesman Denzil Davies quoted Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as describing the Trident as a weapon of last resort.

“What is the point if she has no money for weapons of first resort that could stop a nuclear war in Europe?” he said.

Healey said that NATO’s threat of first use of nuclear weapons was no longer credible because of the destruction it would cause to its own members. “We cannot continue to base security on the threat of mutual suicide,” he said.

Kinnock denied press reports that his recent trip to the United States, aimed at selling the party’s new policy to senior politicians, had been a failure. He said there was a growing acceptance of the party’s view that it would strengthen rather than weaken NATO.