Brown may be left with Trident dilemma when Blair leaves office

Ministers have revealed that the decision on the £25bn replacement of Britain's Trident nuclear missile system is likely to be delayed until next year.

There are growing suspicions among ministers that the Prime Minister is seeking to leave the decision to Gordon Brown, after his departure.

Tony Blair promised MPs when he was challenged by David Cameron, the Tory leader, in June that the decision would be made by the end of 2006.

However, one senior minister said: "There's no sign of any decision being taken by Christmas. It's looking increasingly like Blair wants to push it into Gordon's lap."

The Prime Minister's spokesman has refused to confirm that there will be a decision before the end of the year. Campaigners against Trident said last night they were on the alert for an announcement about the timing of a decision on Trident next Wednesday with the Queen's Speech setting out the programme of Bills for the next session.

Mr Blair is facing an angry backlash over the strategy for securing approval for the replacement of Trident. He has signalled he will seek approval for a replacement by the Cabinet in principle, followed by a White Paper and a final vote in Parliament before the next general election.

Mr Brown has infuriated MPs by indicating he would support a full-scale replacement for Trident, rather than cheaper options such as nuclear-armed cruise missiles, if the armed forces chiefs wanted a more expensive option. Mr Blair is confident that the Cabinet will back a replacement and there are clear signs that the Aldermaston nuclear weapons establishment is already gearing up to make the new warheads.

But the end of the Cold War raised far-reaching questions by Labour moderates on defence about the need for a weapon that can penetrate hardened targets such as Moscow. Mr Blair was challenged about plans for replacing Trident this week by Walter Wolfgang, the veteran CND supporter, at a meeting of Labour's national executive committee.

Mr Blair told Mr Wolfgang, who was thrown out of Labour's 2005 conference for heckling Jack Straw, then Foreign Secretary, but later won an NEC seat, that they would never agree on the issue. Mr Blair said a failure to replace Trident would send Labour back to its position in the 1980s when it was unelectable.

Ann Black, a left-wing member of the NEC, said: "Tony Blair is very keen that we develop ways of getting new policies but on Trident, he seems to be saying that we had that argument in the 1980s and it is exactly the same today: we failed politically in the 1980s because we opposed nuclear weapons and it would be the same now. It is very odd to say the least."

A total of 271 MPs - a majority of backbench MPs - have signed a cross-party Commons motion calling for a debate in Parliament in the next new session. Launching a campaign for change in the Government's direction, the former environment minister Michael Meacher said the running costs of a replacement for Trident could add up to £75bn over 30 years, equivalent to 6 per cent of the country's GDP.

Alan Simpson, a left-wing Labour MP, said that it was "insane" to contemplate spending £75bn on nuclear weapons when the country faced other pressing needs. He said it was one of the dilemmas facing Labour MPs that they were being presented with a fait accompli over the spending of huge sums.