Welsh Peer compares impact of Trident submarine base to Auschwitz

A senior Plaid Cymru peer has compared the effects of a Trident submarine base to a Nazi death camp.

Lord Wigley was commenting on reports – flatly denied by the Government – that the nuclear weapons system could be relocated from Scotland to Wales.

Speaking the day after the world marked 70 years since the end of the Holocaust, the peer made clear that Plaid would be “tremendously opposed” to shifting the base from Faslane naval base to Pembrokeshire.

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Asked whether the move would have some positive benefits, such as bringing jobs to the area, Lord Wigley – a former leader of the party – replied: “Look, this week we have been remembering what happened in Germany before the war, no doubt there were many jobs provided in Auschwitz and places like that but that didn’t justify their existence and neither does nuclear weapons justify having them in Pembrokeshire.”

Challenged as to why he was comparing a Trident base to the notorious death camp, the politician replied: “The number of people that will be killed by Trident will be infinitely more.

“The point I’m making is that you have to look at what a job entails, not just the fact that there is a job located in any particular area and, in this instance, we do not believe that we should have nuclear weapons at all.

“We believe that Trident shouldn’t be renewed and we most certainly don’t want that renewal to happen in Pembrokeshire or anywhere in Wales or, to be fair, anywhere in Britain.”

Pressed on whether he was suggesting there was a “moral comparison” between working on a Trident base and working at a Nazi death camp, Lord Wigley said: “No, the point I was making was this, that you have to consider the nature of the work and not just that a job exists.”