A veteran peace activist caught the attention of Bradford residents yesterday as he brought his ‘Scrap Trident’ protest to the city.

Bruce Kent, 83, delivered his message to Bradford as part of a national speaking tour he is carrying out.

He invited the public to take part in a “People’s Budget” exercise in Centenary Square, asking people to choose what they would spend £100bn on.

A board was on display and split into sections which covered housing, green energy, the NHS and education. Campaigners asked passers-by to place fake amounts of money on the different sections, according to their priority.

Earlier in the day, Mr Kent spoke alongside a number of local speakers including Professor Paul Rogers, from the University of Bradford’s Peace Studies department, and Leeds North East MP Fabian Hamilton (Lab).

Mr Kent said: “It’s been a great day meeting everyone in Bradford. We had a very big meeting at the university. About 100 people attended. I would estimate about 90 per cent of them and people we meet are against Trident and want different priorities addressing by the Government.”

According to figures provided by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the £100bn lifetime spend on a new Trident system could pay for 150,000 extra teachers and nurses every year for the next 30 years, pay all tuition fees for the next 30 years and could fund all accident and emergency services for the next 40 years. Mr Kent is visiting towns across the UK in a bid to rally the public to urge the Government to cancel its plans to spend more than £100bn on new nuclear weapons.

Mr Kent, former chairman and general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) throughout the 1980s, is urging the public to back him in “opposing this disgraceful squandering of public money which has everything to do with national pride and nothing to do with national security.”

He added: “Nuclear weapons are no answer to any threats we actually face.”