Scotland is being \u201cshort-changed\u201d on defence spending by the UK Labour Government, the SNP has said, as figures show some areas of England see as much as three times more spend per person than Scotland.<\/p>\n
The stats from the House of Commons Library show that in 2024-25, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) spent \u00a32.1 billion with defence firms in Scotland, amounting to \u00a3390 per capita.<\/p>\n
At the same time the MoD spent \u00a36.6 billion in south-west England, or \u00a31,120 per capita, and \u00a37.9 billion in south-east England, amounting to \u00a3810 per capita.<\/p>\n
In total the MoD spent a total of \u00a331.7 billion with UK defence firms last year, amounting to \u00a3460 per capita across the country as a whole.<\/p>\n
SNP Westminster defence spokesman Dave Doogan branded the figures \u201cindefensible\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat these new figures on defence spending clearly demonstrate is Scotland is being short-changed by Westminster \u2013 quite frankly it is indefensible for the Labour Government to plough three times more cash into defence in the South West of England compared to Scotland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite all the condescending bragging from the Prime Minister and a string of Labour ministers about their supposed investment in Scottish defence, the official figures are in black and white and they don\u2019t lie.<\/p>\n
\u201cSnarky Westminster politicians continually demand Scotland\u2019s unquestioning gratitude despite Scottish taxpayers contributing every penny that we then ultimately receive in defence expenditure, but now we know the truth \u2013 thankfully international investors continue to show their confidence by placing significant orders.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said overseas orders reflected the \u201cengineering excellence, design quality, competitiveness and innovation\u201d of defence manufacturers in Scotland.<\/p>\n
He went on: \u201cThis is precisely why the Norwegian government placed their \u00a310 billion frigate order here in Scotland.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn so doing Norway have ensured thousands of jobs in Scotland into the future while equipping their Navy with the world\u2019s best anti-submarine ship.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis competitiveness is something Scotland\u2019s defence sector should be hugely proud of.<\/p>\n
\u201cScotland is home to some of the world\u2019s most advanced manufacturers despite a Westminster system that constantly short-changes us.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Healey MP, Secretary of State for Defence, said: \u201cIt\u2019s a joke for the SNP to say they\u2019re remotely on the side of UK Defence: they\u2019ve actively opposed our nuclear deterrent and actively opposed defence jobs in Scotland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Labour Government won the biggest warship deal in British history, worth \u00a310 billion, and securing over 2,000 Scottish shipbuilding jobs for the next 15 years. We\u2019re investing in 130 high tech defence projects across Scotland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe launched the Strategic Defence Review on the Clyde. And we stepped in to save a defence welding skills centre after the SNP refused to fund it. In this era of increasing threat, we are proud of Scotland\u2019s big part in our UK national security.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabour is delivering for defence and delivering for Scotland, while the SNP didn\u2019t bother even discussing defence at their last party conference.\u201d<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scotland is being \u201cshort-changed\u201d on defence spending by the UK Labour Government, the SNP has said, as figures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,4884,11740,712,10004,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-661531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-ministry-of-defence","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-snp","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115806182561281292","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}