THE SNP has been accused of “rank hypocrisy” after condemning UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Ross Greer, the Scottish Greens’ international relations spokesman, said the SNP Government was “only too happy to throw cash at” firms which help construct deadly weapons used by the desert kingdom.
Figures released earlier this year show the Scottish Government spent £1.2 million supporting businesses involved in the arms trade in 2016-17 alone.
Raytheon – which is involved in making missiles linked to civilian deaths in Yemen – has been handed £185,625 of public cash since 2014. It has a factory in Glenrothes.
SNP ministers insist the money is to help companies “diversify” away from the arms trade, and stress they do not provide funding for the manufacture of munitions.
Mr Greer said his party was “in full agreement with the SNP at Westminster that the UK government must stop the sale of arms to the barbaric Saudi regime immediately”.
But he added: “However, the SNP government in Scotland has a far cosier relationship with arms dealers than either they or the SNP’s Westminster MPs wish to admit.
“It is rank hypocrisy for the SNP to ask Theresa May to stop selling these weapons when many of them are made here in Scotland by companies the SNP Scottish Government is only too happy to throw cash at, including after meetings they tried to keep quiet.
“With scores of children being killed by Saudi airstrikes in Yemen and their blockade starving millions more, it is time the SNP cut all ties with Raytheon, and other arms dealers, and instead invest public money in industries which do some good in the world, not those which fuel and which are dependent on death and destruction.
“The SNP won’t kid the public on this, it's time to choose where they stand."
His comments came after SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford called on Theresa May to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia following the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
He said: “Words of condemnation will not do. The UK government must take decisive action following the death of Jamal Khashoggi.
“Saudi Arabia's regime is responsible for multiple human rights violations. Critics face death by crucifixion, teenagers tortured and women imprisoned for campaigning for their human rights.
“Then there is the brutal bombardment of Yemen pushing that country to the brink of famine.
“The killing of Mr Khashoggi has all the hallmarks of being a ‘premeditated murder’. Angela Merkel has announced her government will no longer approve new arms exports to the Saudi kingdom. That is moral leadership.
“Yet our Prime Minister will not commit to ending the sale of arms to the Saudi regime."
He added: “What more evidence of criminality does the Prime Minister need to finally commit to ending the sale of arms to the brutal Saudi regime?”
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