UN talks on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons has the overwhelming support of the British public, a new poll reveals.

The YouGov poll, commissioned by Abolition 2000 UK, asked a representative sample of UK adults, “Do you personally think the UK government should or should not be participating in [the upcoming nuclear ban treaty] negotiations?”. 75% of those polled said yes. Only 9% said the Government should not attend and 16% were undecided.

The poll comes in the wake of news reports suggesting that the Government would not attend the talks beginning later this month. 

Kate Hudson, CND general secretary, said: 

“The hypocrisy of the government’s position is staggering. These are UN multilateral negotiations for a treaty to ban all nuclear weapons. The government says it supports multilateral nuclear disarmament, so why is it boycotting a serious attempt by the overwhelming majority of the international community to do just that?
 
“In July last year, when the government asked MPs to back the £205 billion plan to replace our own nuclear weapons system, the motion stated they would press ‘for key steps towards multilateral disarmament’. It’s now clear this was entirely false.”

Geographically, the strongest support for participating in the negotiations came rather unsurprisingly from Scotland, where 82% favour the Government taking part. As with the Brexit negotiations, the Scottish Executive would prefer to be part of these talks independently of the Westminster Government.

The SNP will be sending their own delegation of observers to the UN. It was recently confirmed that Fabian Hamilton, the Labour Party’s Shadow Minister for Peace & Disarmament, will also attend as an observer.