22 June 2001
MPs attack 'son of Star Wars' project
By Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor
The Independent

Update: (31/10/01) – 280 MPs have signed

Update: (25/7/01) The EDM below has attracted the support of 276 MPs.

216 Labour MPs have signed and this is a majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party (which numbers 412 including the Prime Minister and Speaker). MPs with Government jobs are not permitted to sign EDMs but it is well known that significant concern exists in Government ranks too.

It is also noteworthy that 14 major Trade Unions have carried resolutions in opposition to current missile defence proposals.

Taken together it is very difficult to see how this matter can be kept off the Labour Party Annual Conference agenda in Brighton between 30 Sept and 4 October.

Update: (17/7/01) 256 signatures!

Update: (2/7/01) The Early Day Motion (EDM 23) on Missile Defence, put down by Malcolm Savidge MP, Convenor of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Security and Non-Proliferation on June 20, 2001, had attracted 235 signatures from MPs from all sides of the House of Commons by Friday June 29. This level of support is unusually high.

Tony Blair came under renewed pressure to distance the Government from American plans for a "son of Star Wars" missile programme yesterday after more than 100 Labour MPs signed a Commons motion attacking the project.

Some 173 backbenchers signed an Early Day Motion expressing concern at President George Bush's intention to abandon the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia in favour of a nuclear missile defence shield to protect against rogue states.

The MPs, led by Tony Lloyd, the former Foreign Office minister, Peter Kilfoyle, the former Defence minister, and the backbencher Malcolm Savidge, MP for Aberdeen North, included Liberal Democrats, Scottish Nationalists and the SDLP.

The motion opposing the US plan, which reflects widespread unease among Labour party activists, came after a warning this week by Russia's President Vladimir Putin that the world could be on the brink of a new nuclear arms race. Mr Putin suggested that Russia could install more warheads on its missiles as a defensive response to the threat posed by American proposals.

The motion endorses the unanimous conclusion of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, which recommended that the Government voice "grave doubts" about the project.

EDM 23
MISSILE DEFENCE - 20.06.01

Savidge/Malcolm

That this House expresses concern at President Bush's intention to move beyond the constraints of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in developing missile defence; and endorses the unanimous conclusions of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, which recommended that the Government voice the grave doubts about NMD in the UK, questioned whether US plans to deploy NMD represent an appropriate response to the proliferation problems faced by the international community and recommended that the Government encourage the USA to explore all ways of reducing the threat it perceives.

Over 170 MP's already...
for a complete list of signatories go to..
http://edm.ais.co.uk/weblink/html/motion.html/ref=23