Britain to Move Nuclear Submarines to France, US if Scotland Leaves UK

Ahmed Moamar

The Financial Times, a UK daily newspaper, reported that the authorities in Britain had drawn up secret contingency plans to move the nuclear submarines from ports in Scotland to the United States of America (USA) or France if the Scots vote in favor of independence over the next referendum.

Several senior officials in the UK told the Financial Times that Britain had three options after the formation of an "independent, anti-nuclear Scottish state the site most likely sites to receive submarines is another ports elsewhere on the British Isles, such as Royal Navy base at Devonport.

However, the second option is to transfer British nuclear bases to an allied country such as the US or France, which is the preferred option for the UK Treasury, as it would require minimal capital investment.

But the third option is to negotiate a new British Overseas Territory within an independent Scottish state, containing the bases of Vaslin and Colport.

It is worth noting that the British government strongly opposes Scottish independence.

But the prospect of the kingdom's possible disintegration worries the British government after the ruling Scottish National Party returned to power in May and pledged to ban all nuclear weapons in an independent Scotland.

Scotland's leader, Nicola Sturgeon, told British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last Sunday that a second independence referendum was inevitable after her party scored a solid electoral victory over the general election in the province.

Johnson and his Conservative Party, which sits on the opposition benches in Scotland, reluctantly oppose holding the referendum, claiming that the issue was settled in 2014 when Scots voted to reject independence by 55 percent to 45 percent.

The pro-independence parties won a majority in Scotland's parliament after elections in May, which Sturgeon says gave them the mandate to push ahead with plans for a second referendum after the Covid-19 crisis.

Sturgeon's Scottish National Party won 64 seats in the Scottish Parliament, just one seat short of an absolute majority.