Kate Buck\u00b7Breaking News Editor, Yahoo News UK<\/p>\n
Liz Truss<\/a>\u00a0has said she would be “ready” to use the UK’s nuclear arsenal if she was to become prime minister.<\/p>\n The Tory leadership frontrunner said she would be willing to press the nuclear button, even if it meant “global annihilation”.<\/p>\n Speaking at a hustings event in Birmingham,<\/a>\u00a0Truss spoke with Times Radio host John Pienaar, who said it would make him feel “physically sick” if he was faced with the decision.<\/p>\n Truss said the duty was an “important duty of the prime minister”, and received a round of applause after saying she would have no problem ordering the use of the UK’s nuclear arsenal if necessary.<\/p>\n Pienaar told her: “One of the first things that will happen when and if you become prime minister, you’ll be ushered into a room, a very private room at Number 10, and there will be laid out in front of you what are called the letters of last resort.<\/p>\n “Your orders to our Trident boat captain on whether you, prime minister Liz Truss, is giving the order to unleash nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n “It would mean global annihilation. I won’t ask you if you would press the button, you’ll say yes, but faced with that task I would feel physically sick.”<\/p>\n “How does that thought make you feel?”<\/p>\n Truss replied without emotion: “I think it’s an important duty of the prime minister and I’m ready to do that.”<\/p>\n Pressed on how it would make her feel, she said: “I’m ready to do that.”<\/p>\n The UK has been a nuclear weapon state since 1952, and is one of five officially recognised nuclear states under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.<\/p>\n Currently the UK possesses 225 nuclear warheads, and operates a continuous at-sea deterrence programme.<\/p>\n The threat of nuclear war has been rising since Vladimir Putin attempted to invade Ukraine in February, heightening tensions among neighbouring Nato member states.<\/p>\n