SNP politicians gunning for independence “cannot guarantee the protection of jobs” at the home of the UK’s submarine service near Helensburgh, according to the leader of the Scottish Conservatives.
Speaking to the Advertiser as he visited local businesses in the town on a whistle-stop tour last week, Douglas Ross claimed that the future of Scotland’s defence footprint, incorporating the naval base at Faslane and the armaments depot at Coulport, would be “under threat” if the country separated from the rest of the United Kingdom.
The Moray MP, whose own constituency includes RAF Lossiemouth and the army barracks at Kinloss, claimed the recent £16.5b defence spending boost announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson signals a commitment by his party to maintaining a strong military presence at HMNB Clyde and elsewhere.
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Mr Ross said: “I would absolutely commit to maintaining a military presence here [in Helensburgh and Lomond] and protecting jobs. Any SNP candidate or politician for this area absolutely can’t.
“They are against nuclear weapons. They want to get rid of them from Scotland and that would have a huge impact on jobs that are secured by the base at Faslane.
“We’ve seen from the UK Government the biggest increase in defence spending for over 30 years. That shows the commitment to invest in our armed services.
“Around Scotland we see a strong defence footprint and all that would be under threat if the SNP ever got their way and separated Scotland from the rest of the UK.
“They have got no answers on what level of defence they would have in an independent Scotland but it is absolutely clear it would be a fraction of what we’ve got being part of the family of four nations of the United Kingdom.”
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Slamming the SNP for their “obsession with independence,” Mr Ross outlined a “fresh vision” for the country with a focus on “rebuilding the towns and villages that have been left behind by the Scottish Government”, calling for greater financial powers for local authorities and more support for businesses, in the form of an extension to business rates relief, to aid their recovery from the Covid pandemic.
He said: “These are not empty promises, they are really positive alternatives.
“It’s not just words, there is action there that we can take right now with the funding and the levers of power that we have at the moment to improve everyone’s lives rather than focussing on a bitter constitutional debate that we were told was settled six years ago.”
“There are opportunities to really prioritise things like education, our economy, getting a justice system that works for the victims rather than the criminals, these are all areas that I want to focus on and I want the debate to be on, but we have an SNP Scottish Government who, for the last 13-and-a-half years, have focussed just on picking fights with Westminster and trying to sell their narrative of separation to divide the country again.”
Almost two-thirds of Argyll and Bute voters opted to remain as part of the European Union in the 2016 referendum, while the area’s SNP MP, Brendan O’Hara, previously stated in the Advertiser that “there is no form of Brexit that will benefit the people of Argyll and Bute economically, socially or culturally”.
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When asked how his highlighting of the SNP’s desire to seek independence stacks up against his own party’s pursuit of separation from the EU, and in particular the prospects of a potential ‘no deal’, Mr Ross said he is confident in the process, but the two referendums don’t compare.
“All the efforts on the government’s side, and on the EU’s side, are to get a deal,” he said, “because we understand that a deal will work both for the UK and for the European Union.
“Sadly these negotiations can come down to the wire, it’s always last minute, that’s the way it works in the EU but there has been progress made and everyone is hoping that we can get a deal.
“The two referendums are very separate. We knew when we were voting in the referendum on the European Union in 2016 that we were part of a UK franchise and if the UK decided to stay in the EU we would’ve stayed, and if the UK, as it did, decided to leave the EU we would be leaving.
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“People respect that result, they may not agree with it, but they respect the result of the referendum. What the SNP don’t do is respect the result of the referendum in 2014 when two million Scots said they wanted to remain a strong, integral part of the United Kingdom.
“They have used it to again divide families, workplaces and communities and I think that’s wrong, particularly at this time when our focus has to be on getting on top of Covid-19. Any distraction with another divisive referendum is completely the wrong thing to be looking at at the moment.
“There are opportunities in terms of getting a deal with the European Union that allow us to continue to trade with our friends and partners across the EU but also opportunities to do more around the world.
“These are opportunities that businesses based here and individuals can see in Helensburgh.
“Not everyone agrees with the referendum result but there are opportunities that we can see as an independent nation trading on a global level.”
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