JOHN Swinney slapped down Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay for branding the SNP’s opposition to nuclear weapons “dangerously and naively wrong” in light of the war in Ukraine.
The First Minister told Findlay that the existence of nuclear weapons by Ukraine’s allies had not prevented the Russian invasion.
Ukraine abandoned its nuclear weapons in 1994 after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Swinney delivered a statement to the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday outlining his Government’s position on global events over the past week – including the US’s withdrawal of military aid to Ukraine, Donald Trump’s brutal war of words with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the offer of a state visit to the UK.
Findlay said that recent events had shown that the SNP’s anti-nuclear stance was “not a serious policy”.
Speaking in Holyrood, the Scottish Tory leader picked up on comments that Swinney had made backing his long-held opposition to weapons of mass destruction.
He said: “John Swinney is wrong, he is dangerously and naively wrong. Ukraine bitterly regrets forfeiting its own nuclear deterrent. During the Cold War, it would have been immense folly to surrender our nuclear deterrent.
“And with Ukraine, the UK, Europe and Nato no longer certain of what American future support might look like, this is even more true today. Does John Swinney recognise that in these serious times, the SNP stance on nuclear weapons is not a serious policy?”
Swinney hit back, saying that “with all the possession of nuclear weapons today, Ukraine has been invaded”.
The First Minister added: “Nuclear weapons have not deterred Russia from invading Ukraine.
“And indeed, the challenges that are faced just now in Ukraine to ensure that Ukraine is able to sustain its military operations are conventional weaponry which I think we should have more of at our disposal.”
In his statement, the First Minister heaped praise on Keir Starmer’s recent diplomatic efforts and welcomed the Prime Minister’s efforts to establish a “coalition of the willing” to police any peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
Starmer has said this would be reliant on the US as the ultimate guarantor of peace between the two nations and has rejected American arguments that it taking over large amounts of Ukraine’s natural resources would be the “very best security guarantee” for the war-torn country.
