A total of 20 Labour MPs defied Jeremy Corbyn to vote on Trident as it emerged the Labour leader is considering polling party members on the UK's nuclear deterrent.

More than a dozen Labour MPs rejected Mr Corbyn's anti-nuclear stance and backed a replacement for the ageing weapons system.

But another six voted with the SNP to oppose renewing Trident.

The row came just a day after the government's defence review, which prompted a visit by Armed Forces minister Penny Mordaunt to RAF Lossiemouth in Moray yesterday, warned that the cost of four replacement Trident submarines could rise to as much as £41 billion.

The Labour leadership has urged their MPs not to vote, calling the Commons debate an SNP "stunt".

Many Labour MPs, including the anti-Trident shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray, abstained.

But others took their chance to protest Mr Corbyn's staunch opposition to the deterrent.

Now it has emerged that he is considering asking the party's hundreds of thousands of members for their views on the party's stance in an online poll.

Mr Corbyn is pushing to change his party's stance on the deterrent.

He has praised Scottish Labour's vote at its recent conference to scrap Trident, saying he hoped that it would lead to a change of heart in the UK party's position.

In all 14 Labour MPs voted for the party's current policy to renew Trident.

Earlier the SNP's defence spokesman Brendan O'Hara denounced Trident as a "desperate attempt" by the UK to cling to its imperial past.

Mr O'Hara also hit out at Labour MPs for attacking Mr Corbyn's position.

Mr O'Hara told MPs there was no "moral, economic or military case for Trident", adding it was "not a military weapon (but) a political weapon that can never and will never be used".

That argument was rejected by former Conservative defence secretary Liam Fox who said it was being used "every day - as a deterrent".

The current Defence Secretary Michael Fallon accused Labour of a "shambles" over Trident which would provide comfort to Britain's enemies.

He also likened the recent appointment of the anti-Trident former London mayor Ken Livingstone as co-chair of Labour's defence review to making "an arsonist the co-chief fire officer".

Prime Minister David Cameron announced yesterday that the cost of replacing Trident submarines could rise to as much as £41 billion.

Experts have warned that the overall cost of running the decades long programme could be between £100bn and £167bn.

The MPs who voted to replace Trident include former leadership contender Liz Kendall.