The World - News from May 10, 1989

Britain’s opposition Labor Party dropped its commitment to unilateral nuclear disarmament as part of a wide-ranging policy review aimed at breaking Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s 10-year grip on power. The party’s national executive board voted 17 to 8 in favor of a new policy under which a Labor government would cut British nuclear weapons only in return for reductions by the Soviet Bloc. The Labor move abandoned an eight-year-old pledge to scrap Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent within five years of taking office. The pledge was widely seen as a major factor in Labor’s last two general election defeats. The new policy is sure to face stormy debate when put to party members at Labor’s annual convention in October.