by Joana Ramiro and Luke James

A LABOUR government led by Jeremy Corbyn would scrap Trident nuclear submarines and use the billions saved to refloat British manufacturing, he said yesterday.

The party leadership contender set out his plan to sink the weapons system — but keep the jobs and skills — as Britain marked the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshama bombing.

It included the creation of a Defence Diversity Agency (DDA) to oversee redeployment of Trident workers into other industries.

Speaking at a memorial event in Tavistock Square, Mr Corbyn told activists: “We’ve got to win people over to peace.

“Most people that manufacture the submarines are techinically absolutely brilliant, very intelligent, very technically able to produce these things.

“Those are skills that must not be lost.”

Mr Corbyn’s proposal comes ahead of a vote in Parliament next year on Trident renewal.

Britain currently has four Trident submarines, each carrying missiles with more destructive power than the bomb that killed 140,000 civilians in Hiroshima in 1945.

MPs will decide whether to commission a new fleet at the cost of £83.7 billion over its 50-year lifetime.

A new order would safeguard 11,000 jobs connected to Trident, but the money being spent would be enough to sustain 31,000 jobs in manufacturing, green energy and medical industries, according to Mr Corbyn.

He said: “We should reconfigure the basis of what we’re doing away from mass destruction and use the skills of those people to deal with the real problems of poverty, inequality and environmental destruction.”

Unite the union, which represents many workers whose jobs depend on Trident, is backing Mr Corbyn.

But Azza Samms, the union’s rep at BAE Systems in Barrow-on-Furness where the submarines are built, says workers are not convinced by Mr Corbyn’s alternative.

“Nobody wants nuclear weapons, but they’re here,” he told the Star.

“We’ve looked at diversification in the past and found it will not cover the jobs we would lose — in fact, very, very few.

“We have to look after our members’ jobs and livelihoods. It’s as simple as that.

“But we’re quite willing to sit down with Jeremy Corbyn and listen to what he’s got to say.”

At the memorial: Your thoughts

Tom Gooding
I’ve been coming to these demonstrations for years, so I don’t see any reason for stopping by the fact I can’t walk anymore. I follow all these demonstrations instead of political meetings, I’m a free-thinker

Brenda McGraith
I’m here because it’s the 70th anniversary. We remembered the start of World War I last year and Victory Day in May, this is another very important anniversary that we need to remember.

Thais Court
I just think it’s really important to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s really important to come and show your opposition to nuclear weapons and to remember everyone who died and everything that has happened. Yes, it makes it more special that I come with my grandmother.

Monique Buchli
I feel very strongly about weapons in general. I feel they are not needed. If we work for peace and commit ourselves to create a world without war, without weapons, we would actually achieve much more. Nuclear weapons are just top of the list of the most awful weapons we ever invented and we should never use it. That’s why I am here, to tell the world, come on, stop having these horrible weapons.