Steel to be cut on Royal Navy's next generation of nuclear submarine

DEFENCE secretary Sir Michael Fallon will be cutting steel on the first of the submarines that will be replacing the Royal Navy's ageing Trident Vanguard fleet.

He is expected to carry out the symbolic cutting later today at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, where the four new nuclear subs will be built. It comes days after the defence secretary revealed a £1.3bn cash injection into the project.

Addressing the Tory faithful at the party’s annual conference in Birmingham yesterday, Sir Michael highlighted Jeremy Corbyn‘s lifelong opposition to nuclear weapons as he accused Labour of ‘waving the white flag’ of surrender.

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He said: ‘Tomorrow I will be cutting steel on the first new Successor Trident submarine – a billion-pound investment that will benefit businesses from Barrow to Berkshire, from the North of Scotland to Tyneside.’

The defence chief also revealed plans to make British troops exempt from human rights law on the battlefield.

He said it would protect soldiers from ‘industrial scale claims’ by ‘so-called public interest lawyers’, but opponents have criticised the plan.

But Sir Michael said: ‘We’ve seen our legal system abused to falsely accuse our armed forces – so we’re now doing something about it.’