UK Government Secretly Sells Off Its Shares of AWE to US

By Ben Russell, Home affairs correspondent
Britain no longer has any stake in the production of its nuclear warheads after the Government secretly sold off its shares in the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston.
Ministers agreed to sell the remaining one-third ownership to a Californian engineering company. The announcement, which means that Americans will now produce and maintain Britain's independent nuclear deterrent, was slipped out on the eve of the parliamentary Christmas holiday. Officials refused to say how much the deal raised.
Opposition MPs last night expressed concern that the stake may have been sold off below market value to raise much-needed money for the Treasury. They accused the Government of trying to conceal the sale of the stake in AWE Management Limited by failing to make an announcement in Parliament.
There was also anger that Britain would no longer directly control the site where Britain's nuclear warheads are produced and maintained.
Anti-nuclear campaigners claimed the sale would compromise the independence of Britain's nuclear deterrent. Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour MP for Islington North, called it "astonishing", adding: "It's almost unbelievable that something as serious as the development of nuclear weapons should be privatised to an American company." Kate Hudson, chairman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said: "It is outrageous that control of Britain's so-called 'independent' nuclear weapons is being handed over to American corporations."