Nuclear weapons provide illusion of security, argues senior bishop

The Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Rev Stephen Cottrell, also questioned whether people felt safe with “Donald Trump’s finger upon the button”.

Highlighting the ban on cluster bombs, he argued the case for outlawing nuclear arsenals was even more compelling.

The bishop made his comments as peers debated the UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons, supported by 122 states last year.

The meeting in New York was boycotted by all nuclear-armed nations, including the UK.

However, former Navy chief Lord West of Spithead, who had responsibility for the UK’s submarine-based deterrent, felt the treaty was a mistake and “virtue signalling on a grand scale”.

The Lords debate on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons came ahead of a UN high-level conference on nuclear disarmament, due to be held in May.

The bishop told peers: “The truth is that these weapons of mass destruction are also weapons of mass deception.

“They provide the illusion of security while actually making the world less secure than ever.

“North Korea now joins the nuclear club, who will be next?

“Do we really feel safe with Donald Trump’s finger upon the button?”

He added: “We all patted ourselves on the back a few years ago when we banned cluster bombs. Well the moral arguments about nuclear weapons are just as compelling if not more so.

“For to use a nuclear weapon is suicide as well as genocide.”

He urged the…