UK Nuclear Doctrine:

On 20 March, the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, told the Defence Select Committee on missile defence that Britain would retain the right to use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state: "They [Iraq] can be absolutely confident that in the right conditions we would be willing to use our nuclear weapons." Questioned on television a few days later, he again insisted that

the nuclear option could be taken, if it was thought that British troops were threatened by Iraqi chemical or biological weapons.  The following question, quoting the current terms of the UK's security assurances to NPT parties was put to him: "So you would only use weapons against nuclear weapons against Iraq if Iraq was allied to a nuclear state which had already used nuclear weapons or if Iraq had used nuclear weapons?"  Hoon replied: "No, weapons of mass destruction."  He also suggested that this use of nuclear weapons could be pre-emptive: "Clearly if there were strong evidence of an imminent attack if we knew that an attack was about to occur and we could use our weapons to protect against it."

 Weeks later, in response to questions from Labour backbenchers in the Commons chamber on his previous comments on the possibility of use of nuclear weapons against Iraq, Hoon emphasised: "...a British Government must be able to express their view that, ultimately and in conditions of extreme self-defence, nuclear weapons would have to be used.."

 Numerous parliamentary questions, Early Day Motions, points in debate and comments in Select Committee reports have all sought clarification of current government policy (see UK Update Documents )