Left gears up for fight with Straw over US missile plan

Special report: George Bush's America

Anne Perkins and Claire Hu
Saturday August 18, 2001
The Guardian

Delegates to Labour's conference in October are being urged to revolt against potential government support for US president George Bush's NMD missile defence programme.
Suspicion is mounting that the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, might give British support for NMD, which depends on two early-warning radar stations at Fylingdales and Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, during the summer parliamentary recess.

Malcolm Savidge, MP for Aberdeen North, has accused Mr Straw of using the rhetoric of far right Republicans. Writing in Tribune, he said this week: "Labour's opponents caricature the party as led by a small coterie of cronies, with a shallow short-term agenda and contemptuous disregard for the parliamentary Labour party, the party outside parliament, and Labour's enduring principles.

"We all need to work together to prove how wrong that distortion is. The whole party must convey to the leadership the strength of feeling on this issue, not least through this year's conference."

Some 216, or more than two- thirds, of Labour MPs have signed a Commons motion opposing NMD. The former defence minister, Peter Kilfoyle, has been canvassing union support for what used to be called an emergency resolution to the party conference condemning NMD, due to be debated at the event's close.

Last month, in a Tribune article, Mr Straw spelt out his reasons for considering sup port for NMD. In a later briefing to Labour MPs, he said NMD was vital to prevent attacks by so-called rogue states.

The Bush administration did not want "an impenetrable shield", he said: "This is not Star Wars. We have a much more limited objective."

The briefing suggests the government has already accepted the idea of British participation in the US project.