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No 49,185 £1.20

No 49,185

£1.20No 49,185

Tuesday, July 16, 2013 telegraph.co.uk

By Steven SwinfordSenior Political Correspondent

BRITAIN must retain a “continuous nuclear deterrent” or put its position as a leading world power in jeopardy, defence secretaries who have served the past four prime ministers warn today.

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, five former Conservative and Labour minis-ters have joined military chiefs to say that downgrading the Trident programme would risk national security.

Their intervention comes on the day that a Liberal Democrat review into alter-natives to replacing Trident is published. It will be presented by Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

The review is expected to conclude that there is no serious alternative. Bomber aircraft, missile silos and nuclear-tipped cruise missiles have been ruled out as too expensive and impractical.

The Lib Dem review is instead expected to suggest halving the number of Vanguard submarines from four to two, a move which would leave the country without continuous nuclear-armed patrols for the first time since the 1960s.

A leaked version of the review suggested that building just two new submarines would save £5billion in upfront costs and a further £1billion in annual running costs.

The former defence secretaries say that ministers would be weakening “our national security” to save a “very small fraction” of the defence budget. They say that only a like-for-like successor would safeguard Britain for another 30 years.

The Government has delayed the deci-sion until 2016 under the terms of the Coalition Agreement.

The letter to this paper has been signed

by defence secretaries who have served under David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and Sir John Major. They say that the Trident programme is “vital” to British interests.

“In an uncertain world, in which the number of nuclear weapons remains high and some states are increasing their holding, we should not take risks with our security by downgrading to a part-time deterrent,” they warn.

“We cannot possibly foresee what threats will develop over the next 30 years. Reducing our submarine-based Trident capability would weaken our national security for the sake of a very small fraction of the defence budget.

“It is our view that if Britain is to remain a leading global power with strong defences, nothing less than a con-tinuous-at-sea deterrent will do.”

The signatories include Dr Liam Fox and Sir Malcolm Rifkind, former Tory defence secretaries, alongside Bob Ainsworth, Lord Reid of Cardowan and Lord Robertson, former Labour defence secretaries. Lord Robertson was also the secretary general of Nato between 1999 and 2004. The letter has also been signed by Lord Boyce and Lord Stirrup, both former chiefs of the Defence Staff.

David Cameron “strongly” believes that Britain’s nuclear submarines should be replaced, while Philip Hammond, his Defence Secretary, has accused the Lib Dems of a “reckless gamble”.

Military sources have suggested that halving the number of submarines could leave Britain without a nuclear deterrent for 10 months of the year. The Govern-ment has already committed £3billion to

Continued on Page 2

Editorial Comment and Letters: Page 19

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By Laura Donnelly, Health Correspondent

DYING patients are suffering a “fundamental” lack of care and being left in agony outside normal hours, according to a report which accuses nurses of brutality and callousness.

Ministers have said they will abolish the Liverpool Care Pathway, following an independent review commissioned by the Government which yesterday concluded that the controversial approach to end-of-life care had failed.

Too many patients have been left facing the desperate and “terrifying prospect” of spending their final hours thirsty, with nurses even shouting at families who tried to give their loved ones water, the review led by Baroness Neuberger found.

Later today a separate report by Prof Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical director for NHS England, will expose a history of failings at 14 hospital trusts with high death rates. One Tory MP claims Labour ministers received more than 1,500 alerts over the safety of care at those hospitals.

The Neuberger review heard evidence from relations who had been forced to soak paper towels from bathroom dispensers to provide comfort to desperately thirsty patients who had been placed on the pathway.

The approach was supposed to mean that treatment could be stopped, if it would mean a more comfortable death, while food and drink could be withdrawn if dying patients did not want them. But the panel of experts said the pathway had been misused, which had distressed too many patients and their relatives.

Lady Neuberger said that although the review was set up to examine the use of the pathway, it uncovered far more widespread failings in the treatment of the dying, especially at evenings and weekends. She told The Daily Telegraph:“If there isn’t expert palliative care available it can mean that the dying aren’t given the drugs that they need when the pain intensifies. It can be about patients left in distress, or suffering hallucinations.”

Lady Neuberger said it made “no sense” that in most parts of the country, teams of doctors and nurses who are experts in care for the terminally-ill “shut up shop” at 5pm on a Friday, potentially leaving patients in agony for many days.

Reports: Page 4Sean Worth: Page 18Editorial Comment: Page 19

By Rowena Mason Political Correspondent

THE Conservatives are neck-and-neck with Labour in the polls for the first time in more than a year after a fall in support for the UK

Independence Party, a survey sug-gests.

In what could be the start of a turnaround for David Cameron, the poll found that 36 per cent of voters backed the Tories and 36 per cent supported Labour.

The surprise surge in public backing for the Tories appears to have been fuelled by a sharp drop in support for Ukip.

According to the ICM poll for The Guardian, those saying they would vote for the Eurosceptic party have fallen from 18 per cent in May down to 7 per cent last month.

Support for the Liberal Democrats was up slightly at 13 per cent.

After such a long Labour lead, the level-pegging will be a big boost for Mr Cameron’s efforts to win back lost voters from the Right with several tough policies on ben-efits, a referendum on the Euro-pean Union and immigration.

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, has suffered a difficult few weeks of disclosures about trade union influence. His party had been ahead in the polls since March 2012, when George Osborne deliv-ered a heavily criticised Budget.

By John BinghamSocial Affairs Editor

A MINISTER will today unveil plans to cut the cost of childcare in an effort to salvage a flagship Coa-lition policy left in disarray by the intervention of Nick Clegg.

Liz Truss, the children and fami-lies minister, is publishing the long-awaited recommendations of a government commission.

Ministers are said to favour poli-cies such as amending school entry to allow the brightest three-year-olds to move on from nursery ear-

lier. They have also backed collec-tives for childminders, to help cut overheads, despite doubts that pro-viders would save any money.

The importance of curbing child-care bills was underlined at the weekend when a new study found that families with two children face spending more than £1,000 on care during the school holidays.

Government policy on the issue was thrown into confusion last month when the Deputy Prime Minister announced that he had blocked plans to relax staff-to-chil-dren ratios at childcare centres.

A regal young couple take a walk in the sunshine at Kensington Gardens, London, proudly pushing their newborn baby in a blue buggy. How did they keep the news from the millions awaiting the birth of the third in line to the throne? Find out on Page 21

‘I filled the duvetwith frozen peas’

The hot spell is forecast to continue to the end of this month Page 9

By David Millward, Transport Editor

THE first trial of driverless cars will take place on Britain’s roads later this year.

Plans to test the technology will be announced as part of a £28bil-lion road strategy to be announced by ministers today.

Oxford University researchers have been working with Nissan on the technology.

Although the cars will drive themselves, using cameras, radar and laser sensors, a driver will be in the car as a safety precaution.

The Daily Telegraph