Brown heckled on nuclear weapons

12 April 2012

Chancellor Gordon Brown has been taken to task by a woman protester over his stance on nuclear weapons.

Janet Fenton interrupted Mr Brown as he explained his view, then tried to hand him a letter. When police moved in she instead dropped the letter on the stage in front of him, and was allowed to return to her seat.

The protest took place towards the end of a book promotion session in Edinburgh's Queen's Hall.

Mr Brown had been questioned for nearly an hour by film director Anthony Minghella, and then took questions from the audience.

When one questioner quizzed the Chancellor over his "support" for a system to replace Britain's Trident submarine nuclear missile system, Mr Brown insisted no decision had yet been made by the Government, and said there would be a full public debate.

"I haven't declared what the Government policy is," said Mr Brown. "I believe there has to be a public debate. But people kept asking me what was my personal view."

He went on to argue for a multilateral process of disarmament, and to say the number of nuclear states had increased from five to 10-15 now.

It was at this point that Ms Fenton shouted: "It's because you have not complied with the Non-Proliferation Treaty." After her protest ended, Mr Brown pledged to read her letter "carefully".

He told his audience: "I don't think at this point it makes sense for us to unilaterally throw away our weapons. What I think makes sense for us to do is to use our weapons to negotiate downwards the amount of weapons that exist in the world".

The event was part of the Edinburgh Book Festival.

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