National CND: Burnham wrong to push nuclear weapons as good for jobs

Yesterday, Andy Burnham became the latest Prime Minister to visit BAE’s Barrow shipyard. Alongside new Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, he pledged the government’s commitment to weapons of mass destruction and announced the annual £8.4 billion for the replacement of Britain’s Vanguard fleet, with the new nuclear-armed Dreadnought submarines.

Burnham chose to promote war and nuclear weapons as good for the economy – announcing that thousands of apprenticeship roles will be created in the industry. Yet for the hundreds of billions poured into ‘defence’, it is notoriously jobs-poor. The government’s own data shows that for the same level of spending, health and social care creates double the number of jobs.

The additional £15 billion that Burnhan has endorsed for the Defence Investment Plan is being funded overwhelmingly by cuts to public services, including health, transport and action to tackle climate change.

The cuts to jobs-rich public services will result in a net reduction in jobs in these vital areas that are there to genuinely protect the population.

On the same day as Burnham visted Barrow, devastating wildfires ravaged the Suffolk coast, close to Sizewell B nuclear power station. Hundreds of people have been evacuated and a major incident declared after the wildfire spread over more than 200 acres on the coast. This comes as reports show that nearly 3,000 people died in May and June, due to the extreme heatwave.

According to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, prolonged Accident and Emergency waits due to cuts to the service, resulted in over 15,000 excess deaths in 2025.

So, whilst Burnham argues that war preparation and nuclear expansion will protect the country, in reality, it is exacerbating the urgent threats to life we all face now from the climate crisis and a health service at breaking point. The British government should instead be investing in saving lives, not destroying them.
CND General Secretary argued these points during an interview on LBC yesterday. You can listen to the full conversation on our Instagram and Facebook pages here and here.

You can also find our full response to the visit on CND’s website and read more about it in this front-page article in the Morning Star.

Hiroshima. Nagasaki. Never again.

Across the country, CND groups are preparing to mark the 81st anniversary of the catastrophic atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These dreadful war crimes committed in the last days of World War 2 killed tens of thousands instantly and left others with life changing injuries and illnesses. In the months and years that followed at least 340,000 people had died because of the bombings and the aftermath of living in a toxic environment.

Today, 12,000 nuclear weapons threaten our survival and the chance their use is at its highest since during the Cold War. Increasingly, we hear about ‘limited’ nuclear war with so-called ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons on the battlefield. Yet many of these bombs have a destructive power ten times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

The British government is playing a role in these nuclear dangers, now overtaking Russia as the third highest spender on these weapons of mass destruction. It is expanding its nuclear arsenal by 40% to 260 warheads and is buying nuclear-capable fighter jets in addition to building a new fleet of nuclear-armed submarines.

This August, join us in reaffirming our commitment to a world free from the threat of nuclear weapons: Hiroshima. Nagasaki. Never again

Actions you can take:

• Use our interactive map to find a commemoration event near you. If you know of any event being organised that isn’t there, email [email protected] with the details and it will be added.
• Become a CND member today. Join us in our campaign for a world free from the threat of nuclear war.
• Share the message. Get your No More Hiroshimas tshirt to wear to start conversations about why we need to get rid of nuclear weapons today. And you can order leaflets explaining the importance of these anniversaries.
• Watch this powerful testimony from Kyoko Gibson, a second generation Hibakusha (survivor) on the emotional and psychological horrors of nuclear war.

US out of British bases – stop the war drive! Join the online meeting on 5 August!

Ahead of our demonstration at RAF Fairford on 15 August, an online public meeting will take place on 5 August. Organised by CND, Stop the War Coalition and Iranians Against War, we’ll be discussing the latest developments in the US war on Iran, Britain’s role in supporting the illegal bombing of Iran from British bases, as well as the Burnham government’s push for welfare cuts to fund military spending and nuclear weapons.

• Saturday, 5 August
• 6:00pm
• Online, register here

With speakers: Maryam Eslamdoust, TSSA General Secretary, Sophie Bolt, CND; Shabbir Lakha, Stop the War Coalition; and Atefeh Zandi, Iranians Against War.