Kezia Dugdale: She bowed to the will of her party and voted against renewing Trident.

The Scottish parliament has voted strongly against the renewal of Trident after a rare display of unity by Labour and the Scottish National party.

In an unusual concession after years of rivalry on defence policy, the SNP adopted a motion put forward by Labour that said scrapping Trident’s replacement system had to be tied to a fully-funded programme to find new jobs for redundant defence workers.

The deal saw Scottish Labour’s leader, Kezia Dugdale, vote in favour of the motion, abandoning her long-standing opposition to unilateral disarmament, after her party voted by more than 70% to oppose nuclear weapons at its annual conference on Sunday.

With the amended motion calling for a defence diversification agency, the final tally was 96 in favour and 17 against, including the sole Labour rebel, Jackie Baillie, whose Dumbarton constituency includes the Trident submarine base at Faslane, and all the Tory and Liberal Democrat MSPs present.

The Holyrood vote will allow the policy’s supporters within Labour to argue that scrapping Trident represents majority opinion in Scotland.

Source: SNP and Labour MSPs unite to vote against Trident renewal

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