PRESS RELEASE

Greenpeace volunteers have scaled a crane next to Big Ben and hung a huge banner from it declaring 'TONY loves WMD'.



The protest comes as MPs prepare to vote tomorrow on whether to renew Britain's nuclear weapons system and commit Britain to nuclear arms for the next 50 years. The four volunteers aim to occupy the crane until the vote takes place. They hope to telephone as many MPs as possible urging them not to support new weapons of mass destruction.



One of the volunteers on the crane, Cat Dorey, said:'Trident is a cold war relic designed to destroy Russian cities. If MPs buckle under pressure from Tony Blair and vote to renew it, the repercussions will be felt around the world. We can't oppose proliferation of WMD if we're building them at home.'



She continued: 'The government promised a national debate on Trident but this is being rushed through quicker than a shotgun wedding. The real threat is climate change and the billions earmarked for Trident could help make Britain the world's first low carbon economy. We're phoning MPs from the crane and asking them to respect the will of the country and vote against Tony Blair's WMD programme.'



A recent poll commissioned by Channel Four found that three quarters of the public oppose government replacing Trident now.



A report from Greenpeace released last week estimated the true cost of building a new generation of nuclear weapons to replace Trident will be at least £76bn and could rise as high as £100 billion. These figures contrast starkly with the £15-20bn figure the government has previously stated will be the cost of Trident replacement. The report details how government has spun the figures by only including the design and building costs of the submarines and not the far higher price of maintaining and developing the nuclear weapons system over its lifetime.



The campaign to oppose new nuclear weapons systems has received support across the political spectrum



Kofi Annan says of Tony Blair's policy: 'They should not imagine that this will be accepted as compatible with the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty.'



Former shadow defence secretary Michael Ancram says: 'The threat of using nuclear weapons is not only illogical but incredible' 'the need for genuinely independent alternative and flexible non-nuclear deterrence is if anything greater.'



Professor Stephen Hawking says: 'To replace Trident would make it more difficult to get arms reduction. It would also be a waste of money because there are no circumstances in which we would use it independently.'



Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said in London recently: 'Britain cannot expect other countries to refrain from acquiring nuclear weapons if it upgrades its trident nuclear weapons system.'