Scottish Labour has overwhelmingly voted against renewing the UK’s Trident nuclear weapon system, putting policy north of the border at odds with the UK party’s stance.
The vote also means UK leader Jeremy Corbyn and Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale both now have a different view on the controversial issue to their party members.
While Labour’s position continues to be to support the continuation of Trident, Mr Corbyn is firmly against nuclear weapons.
Ms Dugdale, who supports multilateral disarmament, watched from the stage as a vote to scrap Trident won just over 70% of the votes at the Scottish Labour Party conference in Perth.
The new Scottish leader has not yet commented on the result.
But the Labour activist who moved the motion hailed it as hugely significant.
Stephen Low, also a member of the Unison trade union, said: “It’s without question Scottish party policy now. The Scottish Labour Party is now completely committed to a non-renewal position.”
This will feed into UK Labour’s policy process, and could help Mr Corbyn persuade his party to back a policy of unilateral disarmament, he said.
Mr Low added the stance in Scotland could help the party win votes in next May’s Holyrood elections, and stated: “Every journey begins with a single step, and this was the first step, but it was a significant step, it’s a step we’re delighted to have taken.”
The Trident debate saw trade unions, MSPs and party members all divided over the controversial issue, with the motion backed by 70.3% to 29.7%.
A total of 11,444 votes were cast by members of Constituency Labour Parties, with 70.2% backing the motion, and 29.8% rejecting it. Meanwhile trade unions cast 196,875 votes, with 70.4% voting in favour, and 29.6% voting against.
Afterwards shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray – who has already said he is opposed to renewing Trident – said he was pleased party members had been allowed to debate the key issue.
Mr Murray, now Scottish Labour’s only MP after the general election defeat, said: “My position has always been clear on this, I don’t think we should be renewing Trident. I’m pleased the party membership have been given the space – the space created by Kez incidentally – to have these debates today.
“I’m pleased at the democracy of the party and Kezia has been able to re-democratise the party and give the members a real say.”
He added: “I thought it was a very high quality debate from all sides, I think it’s been great for the party and the members are delighted they’ve had a say on what is a major policy issue.
“You can’t on the one had want to democratise your party and then say you can only be a democratic party if you agree with the leader.”
However he could not guarantee Scottish Labour’s anti-Trident stance would be included in the manifesto for next year’s Holyrood elections.
Mr Murray said the motion had won the two thirds support necessary for it to be in the manifesto, but added that this may not contain a section for reserved policy areas.
He said: “If there is more than two thirds at conference like this then it should automatically go into the manifesto, but there might not be a section in the manifesto for these kind of issues.”