The UK House of Commons voted to renew the country's Trident missile-based nuclear deterrent on 18 July, giving a green light to the continued development of four replacement nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) known as the Successor class. While newly installed Prime Minister Theresa May stated in the Commons debate on Trident that it would be "an act of gross irresponsibility" to abandon the UK's nuclear deterrent and that it was the "ultimate insurance against nuclear attack", Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, a life-long campaigner for nuclear disarmament, flew in the face of his party's official policy to argue against renewing Trident. That incurred the wrath of many Labour Members of Parliament (MPs), however, and even though all but one of Scotland's 59 MPs also opposed Trident, the vote to renew the programme was ultimately carried by 472 votes to 117.
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