THE SNP leadership has been accused of reckless “political posturing” after it called for the removal of Trident nuclear weapons from Scotland following this week’s Commons vote.

MPs voted by 472 to 117 in support of the Conservative Government motion to replace the Clyde-based ageing Vanguard submarine fleet carrying the missiles with four new Successor vessels. However, all but one of Scotland’s 59 MPs opposed the motion.

READ MORE: Northern Ireland Unionist MPs tell UK Government: We'll take Trident

In the aftermath, Angus Robertson, the Nationalist leader at Westminster, insisted Theresa May and her colleagues “must respect Scotland’s clear decision against Trident renewal and remove these nuclear weapons of mass destruction from the Clyde”.

Stressing how as a nation Scotland had consistently opposed the possession of nuclear weapons, he said: “It would be democratically unacceptable if in the face of this clear opposition the UK government were to impose Trident nuclear weapons on the Clyde against Scotland’s wishes.”

He added the two governments must now work together to “ensure the earliest safe withdrawal of nuclear warheads from Scotland and to discuss the retention and diversification of HMNB Clyde as a conventional naval base”.

But the GMB union claimed the SNP leadership’s position had nothing do with looking after the interests of Scottish workers but everything to do with the party’s deputy leadership campaign in which Mr Robertson is standing.

READ MORE: Poll: Should MPs vote to renew Britain's nuclear deterrent, the Trident submarine system

Gary Cook, GMB regional officer and chairman of the Confederation of Shipbuilding Engineering Unions, said "Just when we thought that thousands of good, high-value jobs were safe, the SNP and the Scottish political establishment show their utter contempt for Scottish workers and their families by putting their jobs on the line once again.

“The latest call by the SNP for Trident work to be removed from Scotland is completely reckless and shows a blatant disregard not only for the jobs in Rosyth and Faslane but also the Upper Clyde shipbuilders, who will transfer to other locations to work on the Successor programme. The supply chain and the many communities Trident jobs support across the length and breadth of Scotland would also be destroyed,” he insisted.

Mr Cook added the decision in favour of the Trident Successor programme had been taken following a fair democratic vote and it was now “time for the whole Scottish political establishment to accept this fact, take it on the chin and live with it or else risk further alienating thousands of workers in Scotland whose futures depend on defence manufacturing”.

Meantime, the Scottish Conservatives condemned the SNP for its “craven hypocrisy,” pointing out how while its MPs opposed replacing Trident, the party’s policy was to support nuclear-armed Nato.

"The Nationalists want to be a member of the nuclear-armed club at the same time as demanding that nuclear weapons are expelled from Scotland,” declared Jackson Carlaw, the Scottish Tories’ deputy leader.

"This isn't serious politics; it is small-minded Nationalist nimbyism and it demonstrates that the SNP's sole aim here isn't to defend our country but to divide it.”

READ MORE: Northern Ireland Unionist MPs tell UK Government: We'll take Trident

He added: “Many people hold principled opposition to nuclear weapons but the SNP's defence policy faces so many ways it is fast becoming a national embarrassment."

Meantime, Northern Ireland’s Unionist MPs repeated their invitation to the UK Government with the DUP’s Ian Paisley saying if the SNP "don't want Trident jobs in Scotland, they will be happily taken in Northern Ireland”.