The Scottish Secretary said Scotland should reap the ‘defence dividend’ but the SNP’s Westminster defence spokesperson said his party’s stance on nuclear was in line with the Scottish population.
Iain Murray calls for SNP to drop nuclear opposition(Image: PA)
In a week that began with the US launching strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, the world’s most powerful nations have now turned their attention to their own defence.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the UK would buy 12 new F-35A fighter jets capable of transporting nuclear bombs while at the NATO summit in the Netherlands Donald Trump praised members for agreeing to spend five per cent of their GDP on defence.
A newly-published National Security Strategy stated the UK has to “actively prepare for the possibility of the UK coming under direct threat, potentially in a wartime scenario”.
Politicians from across the spectrum have been debating what this preparation looks like and whether it should include nuclear weapons.
Here the Sunday Mail speaks to Labour’s Scottish Secretary Ian Murray and the SNP’s defence spokesman Dave Doogan about their very different views on how to protect the nation from foreign threats.
Secretary of State for Scotland Ian Murray
Scottish Secretary Ian Murray has called for the SNP to rethink its stance against nuclear weapons.
The Labour MP for Edinburgh South changed his stance on nukes in recent months, having been a “lifelong” opponent of the weapons previously.
In February he was praised by disarmament campaigners for his support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, but a month later he said he was “proud” that Scotland hosted Trident.
Last week he re-stated his support of the deadly weapons and said “It’s really important when circumstances change for that to happen.”
He made the comments the day before Starmer announced he was buying 12 new US-made fighter jets, which are capable of carrying conventional weapons as well as American nuclear bombs.
Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Mail Murray said the First Minister and his party should review their opposition to nukes.
He said: “Any responsible government has to make sure they put their national security and the safety of their own people first.
“Scots only have to turn on their TVs and pick up their newspapers to read about the fact that there is a changing global instability.
“I do think the Scottish Government should readdress it.
“Defence is really important and the two key things that come from that defence posture are jobs and growth in Scotland.”
Murray said the country played a “disproportionate role” in Britain’s defence and he wanted to exploit the “dividend” that comes from that.
He said: “My views on nuclear weapons changed some time ago but they have been underlined and emphasised by the fact that the issue of nuclear weapons and deterrence have become a huge global stability issue.
“For the Scottish government to tell Rolls Royce, one of the most respected British institutions, that they will not contribute to them investing in a highly skilled welding academy in Glasgow tells the public that they don’t care about jobs, growth and opportunities for the future.
“That is a huge part of the defence dividend we should be trying to capture. Places like Babcock and BAE systems are hiring foreign welders from the Philippines and South Africa to do the work local people should be doing.
“So yes their stance should change, not just on defensive nuclear but on civilian nuclear as well.”
SNP defence spokesperson Dave Doogan
The SNP’s Westminster defence spokesman accused Keir Starmer of pandering to Donald Trump to “make him relevant” after agreeing to buy a dozen new fighter jets capable of transporting US nuclear weapons.
Dave Doogan, MP for Angus and Perthshire Glens, said his party’s stance on nuclear was in line with the Scottish population and said the UK Government was not being honest about the country’s own nuclear capability.
He said: “ The SNP’s position on nuclear remains resolute insofar as we’re against it. We believe we’re firmly in step with the vast majority of civil society in Scotland on that point.
“Ian Murray, consistent with many other issues, is not in step with the majority of civil society in Scotland.
“I’ve spoken to armed forces professionals who deal with the nuclear deterrent and nobody talks about it in the triumphant way in which Westminster politicians of the two main parties do.
“They know keenly that nuclear weapons are an evil. They would see it as a necessary evil, I take a different view.”
Doogan said the public were “being taken for mugs” by Starmer following the announcement about the dozen F-35A jets and said the US would really be in control if it came to delivering nuclear attacks.
He said: “The announcement is an absolute disgrace. The Americans have instructed the United Kingdom to not buy 12 F-35B variants, which is the vertical takeoff model that the UK wanted, and swap them for 12 ‘A’ variants that can’t be operated off the UK’s aircraft carriers.
“They have to operate off land so they can carry America’s nuclear weapons for America, store them in the United kingdom and launch them in a way that America determines, without a debate or a manifesto commitment on any of this.
“People are being taken for mugs.”
Doogan said the purchase will see the UK “become an arms-length nuclear franchise for the United States” and said: “No other nuclear power delivers another nuclear power’s nuclear weapons.
“There are five nuclear sharing nations in Europe who have agreed that in time of war they will assist with United States nuclear weapons. None of those countries have massive nuclear weapons bills like the UK.
“Only the UK is lining up to deliver America’s nuclear weapons for America while being a nuclear power.
“It is yet another example of the current Labour government falling at the feet of the Trump administration, begging for him to make them relevant.”
He said the money spent on nuclear weapons in the UK was “one of the reasons why the conventional armed forces are in the state that they are in.”
He said: “The SNP believe not that we should be disinvesting from nuclear weapons so that we can disinvest in defence – far from it.
“We could have a far more robust defence posture of conventional armed forces, that Scotland deserves, without the hundreds of millions that’s getting spent on dreadnought-class submarines and weapons.
“We believe nuclear weapons are morally wrong and that the UK’s possession is surplus to requirements that exist in a genuinely independent way within NATO.
“They certainly shouldn’t be in Scotland’s waters without a by your leave.”