ED Miliband has insisted a future Labour government would do "whatever it takes" to keep Britain safe, including keeping the nation's continuous-at-sea nuclear deterrent based on the Clyde.

 

The Labour leader's public commitment came after 20 former defence and security chiefs, including Scottish peer Lord Robertson, the ex-Nato Secretary General, warned that it would be "irresponsible folly" for the next UK Government not to renew Trident.

But Nicola Sturgeon rejected the warning and argued that Britain's nuclear weapons were a "status symbol", which did not add to the state's security. The SNP leader has made clear Nationalist MPs would vote against Trident renewal and that the issue was a red line for any formal deal with Labour in a hung parliament.

The former defence and security chiefs, who included two ex-Defence Secretaries, six ex-armed forces chiefs, two ex-GCHQ experts and 10 politicians and defence officials - expressed their views in an open letter to whoever should win next week's election, insisting that a decision not to renew the nuclear submarine fleet based at Faslane would "effectively end Britain's nuclear deterrent", and would be "irrevocable".

The main gateway decision is due in "early 2016" ie just weeks before Scottish voters go to the polls in the Holyrood elections in May of next year.

"To abandon Trident now and for good in the hope that no threat will emerge would be to take an enormous gamble on behalf of generations not yet born," said the former defence and security chiefs.

"In an uncertain world where some powers are now displaying a worrying faith in nuclear weapons as an instrument of policy and influence, it would be irresponsible folly to abandon Britain's own independent deterrent."

The decision would affect "the security and ultimately the survival of our nation", they added.

Asked if he was committed to approving the main gateway decision to renew the Clyde-based nuclear submarine fleet in early 2016 - just weeks before the Scottish parliamentary elections - Mr Miliband, at a campaign event in London, replied: "We'll do whatever it takes to keep our country safe. Let me absolutely clear about this. We set out in our manifesto that we will keep our independent nuclear deterrent; a continuous-at-sea deterrent."

He said the warning from the former defence and security chiefs had to be "taken seriously".

"I couldn't be clearer; we will do whatever is necessary to keep our country safe," he added.

But the First Minister said she had a "very sharp disagreement" with the former defence and security chiefs, stressing how the UK needed strong conventional forces, which had been compromised because of "the obsession with Trident, which is a status symbol rather than a device to genuinely protect the country".

Ms Sturgeon said the £100bn earmarked over the next 30 years for a new fleet of nuclear submarines would be better spent on healthcare and education.

"Britain is an island nation, a maritime nation, and yet Britain's forces don't have a single maritime patrol aircraft. When Russian submarines were thought to be patrolling in our territorial waters a few months ago, Britain had to call in other countries to check that out. We need strong conventional forces, not new nuclear weapons," she added.

At the Labour campaign event, Mr Miliband also addressed remarks from Conservative frontbencher Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, who this week said the Labour leader would "barter away" Trident as part of a deal with the SNP to get into No 10 but repeatedly refused to confirm whether or not the Conservatives would vote with a minority Labour government to renew the nuclear deterrent.

Noting how Mr Fallon had previously accused him of playing politics with defence, Mr Miliband hit back, saying: "A man who...refuses to say six times that they would vote under a Labour government for our national defence and for keeping our nuclear deterrent. It says a lot about where the Conservative Party is and the desperate state they've been reduced to."

Earlier however, William Hague, the former Foreign Secretary, said Conservative MPs would always vote for the national interest.

"The uncertainty here is over Labour's policy. We don't know what a Labour government would put to the Commons," he added.