The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has come out to criticise Gordon Brown for comments he made in which he said that his late father, a church minister, would have approved of his policy on nuclear weapons.

|TOP|The Rt Rev Alan McDonald criticised the Chancellor while speaking at an anti-Trident debate in Glasgow for making such a statement in defence of his decision on nuclear warheads renewal, reports The Scotsman.

"In Scotland, in the church where his father was a Church of Scotland minister, Gordon Brown said he was sure his late father would have agreed with him about nuclear weapons. Well who knows, but we do know that the Church of Scotland has opposed nuclear weapons for the past 25 years," said Rev McDonald.

Mr Brown made the statement at a service he attended on Sunday at St Bryce Kirk in Kirkcaldy.

When asked whether his father, the late Rev Dr John Brown, would have agreed with the Chancellor’s support of Trident renewal, he replied: “The first duty of a government is to defend and protect the security of the citizens of its country and at a time of international insecurity nobody would thank us for renouncing some of the parts of our defence."

|AD|A spokesman for the Chancellor added last night: "There are many strong views on this issue, and there must be the fullest possible debate before any decisions are made.

"But ultimately, governments have a responsibility to lead and to recommend what they feel is right for the long-term security needs of the country."

The Kirk Moderator went on to criticise Brown for his support of a nuclear deterrent saying it made his attempts to end world poverty meaningless.

"The Chancellor is due great credit for his part in the Make Poverty History Campaign," he said.

"However, what is the point of making poverty history if you then effectively target the poor, and everybody else in the world, with nuclear weapons?

"And ... how much aid for the developing world could you buy with £25 billion? How many lives could be saved?"