ANTI-Trident campaigners appealed yesterday for the police to hold back from arrests at Burghfield nuclear bomb factory in Berkshire during a month of “gentle disruption” which starts on Monday.

Campaigners instead want police to “pursue the clear prima-facie case against the operators of the plant and the UK government.”

The campaigners say nuclear weapons are a crime against humanity, and governments owning them should be prosecuted.

David Mackenzie of Trident Ploughshares said: “Since we founded Trident Ploughshares in 1998 we have been consistent in our stance that the fundamental case against the UK’s nuclear weapons arsenal is that its obvious inhumanity as a weapon of mass slaughter makes it unlawful under the basic principles of international law.

“So next Monday we will be acting to uphold the law and are asking the police, as an absolute minimum, to allow us to continue unhindered our gentle disruption of the work.”