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Yorkshire 'could get Son of Star Wars missiles'
Peer tells Minister full consultation needed Simon McGee Political Editor YORKSHIRE could be forced to become the home to missiles for America's "son of Star Wars" defence system with little regard for the wishes of local people, a Yorkshire peer has warned.
It follows Britain's naming, by a top United States general, as a prime candidate to host a battery of "interceptor" missiles designed to shoot down long-range ballistic missiles launched accidentally or in anger by rogue states or forces.
US Missile Defence Agency director Lieutenant General Trey Obering said Britain, Poland and the Czech Republic were the three candidates on their final shortlist.
As North Yorkshire is home to the US ballistic missile early warning system Fylingdales, famous since the 1960s for its golf ball and pyramid shaped radars, and the US electronic surveillance base at Menwith Hill, Yorkshire peer Lord Wallace of Saltaire said the county was an obvious candidate.
Lord Wallace, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and a former director at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said it was "very likely" that they would be sited in North Yorkshire and demanded to know to what extent the plans would be debated in Parliament.
Raising the matter in the House of Lords, he asked: "What consultations will they hold on the implications of the announcement by the head of the United States Missile Defence Agency that the United Kingdom has been chosen as a prime candidate to host missiles for the United States' missile defence system?"
Armed Forces Minister Lord Drayson insisted no decisions had been made.
"The United States announced that it is 'considering the potential of fielding a small number of interceptor missiles in Europe'," he said.
"In Washington last week the United Kingdom was mentioned as a candidate for a possible missile defence site.
"The US has made no request about an interceptor site in the UK. It has said that it will continue to consult allies on missile defence issues.
"We expect to be engaged in those discussions.
"No decisions on further UK participation in missile defence have been taken."
But Lord Wallace, a Liberal Democrat, continued: "Can the Government assure the House as to the kind of consultation that they will have with parties and Parliament when such a request comes?
"Does the Minister recognise that the current American administration have a rather unilateral approach to their use of bases in other sovereign states and that the degree of extra-
territoriality that some of us have already witnessed in US bases in this country is a little worrying?
"We are therefore concerned. It is a particularly sensitive subject and we wish to ensure that there is full and open consultation once an American request is made."
Lord Drayson replied: "I can assure the House that we recognise the complexity and sensitivity that surround these matters... given the recognition of the sensitivity, I will pass on to my right honourable friend the Secretary of State the point that the noble Lord has made about the need for full consultation on these matters."
Interceptors have already been installed in Alaska and California and a total of 38 are expected to be in place there by the end of 2009.
Last night Lord Wallace told the Yorkshire Post: "I'm concerned about the extent to which Fylingdales and Menwith Hill are under US control; that they can effectively do whatever they want on British and Yorkshire soil without British people being consulted or informed.
"All the indications are that the Government will be unlikely to say no to siting a battery in Britain – it's very likely that they would be sited in North Yorkshire.
"There are questions that need to be addressed.
"We need to know what control, if any, Britain would have over such a facility, and whether it would make Britain more of a target. If fired, the odds are that it would land on a European country.
"And we have to ask ourselves: Are British interests always the same as those of the US?"
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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