DIRE warnings about the safety of Britain’s nuclear deterrent from a Royal Navy submariner were waved away yesterday by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon.

Mr Fallon said a Ministry of Defence (MoD) investigation into claims by Able Seaman William McNeilly has found that neither the operational effectiveness of Trident nor the safety of the public or submariners has been compromised.

He said that allegations made by the whistleblower were “incorrect, the result of misunderstanding or based on historic events.”

The sailor handed himself into the police earlier this month after producing a report making a series of allegations.

CND general secretary Kate Hudson described the document as “damning.”

“While Trident is supposed to keep us safe, this report paints a nightmarish picture of just how close we may have come to the UK’s own nukes causing the greatest catastrophe this country has ever seen,” she said.