PRIME MINISTER Andy Burnham has been slammed for appeasing US President Donald Trump by activists holding vigils for the 81st Hiroshima Day today.

Mr Burnham has committed to plunge billions into expanding Britain’s nuclear arsenal, which remains under ultimate US control, in line with Mr Trump’s demands for huge military spending increases from Nato member states.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn argued that “security is not the ability to threaten and destroy your neighbour” in the Morning Star.

Ministry of Defence staff high-fived as arms companies shares soared in the wake of John Healey’s appointment as Chancellor “in a very telling sign about the direction of this government,” he added.

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) general secretary Sophie Bolt criticised Mr Burnham overseeing cuts to public services to help Mr Trump facilitate “its nuclear supremacy” to “check China’s economic growth and growing global influence.”

She warned that the US-driven Nato expansion has seen successive governments drop their ban on hosting nuclear weapons.

“The existential threats from nuclear annihilation and accelerating climate breakdown are only growing,” she writes.

Stop the War Coalition vice-chair Chris Nineham said: “This year’s Hiroshima day falls at a time when the threat of a repetition of that catastrophe is greater than ever. 

“That Trump is in control of nuclear weapons at all is frightening, that he controls them at a time when two major wars are deadlocked is truly terrifying. 

“The current Western drive to war is taking us to the brink of disaster. We must redouble our efforts to force our rulers to the negotiating table over Iran and Ukraine.”

Last week, the Labour leader announced an £8.4 billion investment in Britain’s nuclear submarine programme, with £5.9bn going to BAE Systems.

Today marks 81 years since the US dropped its “Little Boy” atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan. 

Three days later it dropped a second atomic bomb called “Fat Man” on the city of Nagasaki. By 1950, more than 340,000 people had died as a result.

Peace Pledge Union’s Anna Kharbanda said: “Pacifism is too often dismissed as naive. But war is naive — normalised as an inevitable, necessary part of statecraft. 

“Britain is now the world’s third-largest nuclear spender, pouring billions into arms companies’ shareholder profits rather than the  housing, healthcare and climate action people actually need to feel safe.”

Scottish Greens co-leader Gillian Mackay MSP said: “The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were among the most inhumane atrocities ever committed.”