"Britain must remain committed to a minimum, credible, independent nuclear capability delivered through a continuous at-sea deterrent," May said in the parliament.
The prime minister expressed confidence that many lawmakers would back the renewal.
However, Confronting terrorism and renewing the United Kingdom’s Trident nuclear deterrent is not a choice in the face of a “variety” of threats facing the country, British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday.
“It is not a choice. What this country needs to do is to recognize that it faces a variety of threats and make sure that it has the capabilities that are necessary and appropriate to deal with each of those threats,” May told lawmakers.
Singling out the perceived nuclear threat from Russia and North Korea, the prime minister argued that threat “has not gone away, if anything it has increased.”
“You cannot develop a deterrent fast enough to respond to a new and unforeseen nuclear threat. So the decision on whether to renew our nuclear deterrent hinges not only on what we face today, but also on an assessment of what the world would be like over the coming decades,” she stressed.
May also said she would authorize a nuclear strike as she set out her case for the Trident nuclear deterrent’s renewal to lawmakers.
"Yes," May said when asked if she was personally prepared to authorize a nuclear strike. "The whole point of a deterrent is that our enemies need to know that we would be prepared to use it."
