Peace activists in the Faslane 365 group mounted a protest at a Royal Navy recruitment drive at Bradford University in a bid to make potential recruits think about the ethics of their choice.

Ben Wells, of Faslane 365, said: "We're not against the Navy in general. In fact we support a well educated, peace building defence force, but in light of last Wednesday's Parliamentary decision for Britain to remain a nuclear state for 50 years we thought it was important to remind potential Navy officers that they might have their finger on the nuclear button.

"We're going to Faslane on Thursday night to show our disgust at the warmongering decisions of this Government and its supporters and we thought we should invite recruits to the Navy to join us and see first hand what they will be involved with."

In the event, however, interest in the Royal Navy stall was almost non-existent, according to the Reverend Chris Howson, the Anglican City Centre priest for Bradford, who joined the protest.

He said: "It turned out that only two people approached the stall all day, the protesters outnumbered them quite considerably."

No-one at the Royal Navy was available for comment.