THE RENEWAL of Trident was at the forefront of the election pledges made by two Conservative Party leadership hopefuls.
Home secretary Theresa May and former defence secretary Liam Fox have both made clear they support the renewal of the Trident programme.
Both candidates were trying to woo their colleagues to support them as Tory MPs prepare to vote for their next leader.
Mrs May said she would make "strong defence an important priority" and it would be "sheer madness" for the UK to give up its nuclear deterrent.
Fellow leadership candidate Dr Fox has also called for the politics surrounding the Successor programme to end.
As well as pledging to increase the defence budget, Dr Fox said the renewal of Trident "should not be used as a political football, or a tool against Labour in Parliament".
However this was not enough to secure Dr Fox the number of votes needed to progress past the first round.
Dr Fox's 16 votes was the lowest number out of the current candidates, and subsequently he has been knocked out of the race.
After the result was announced, Dr Fox said: "I am very grateful to those colleagues who supported me in the ballot today.
"I felt it was vital to stress the importance of national security in this debate and the need for a clear path to our exit from the European Union. I hope I have achieved both these objectives."
The replacement of the current Vanguard class of nuclear submarines was recently handed a boost.
It was confirmed that there will be a vote in the House of Commons on the final approval of the Successor submarine programme before the Parliamentary break on July 21.
BAE Systems Submarines, who will build the next generation nuclear fleet, is already in the advanced stage of development for the Successor programme.
The programme is expected to bring almost 2,000 jobs to Barrow as BAE continues to expand its operation.
Read more about what Theresa May said about Trident here
Read about the plan to vote on Trident before MPs break for the summer
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