PMQs clash: Scots want government that 'weans itself off addiction to constitutional change,' insists Johnson

But Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, hit back, arguing that people in Scotland are best served with a government that prioritised “bairns, not bombs” – a reference to the UK Government’s defence review, which refers to raising the limit by as much as 40 per cent on how many nuclear warheads can be stockpiled on the Clyde.

The Highland MP told the Commons: “For people across Scotland, this week again exposed the tale of two governments, with two very different sets of values.

“Yesterday, the SNP Government passed landmark legislation that will put the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots law, putting children at the vanguard of children’s rights.

“In contrast, we have a UK Government that has to be shamed into providing free school meals, that will clap for nurses but won’t give them a fair wage and ploughs billions into a nuclear arsenal that sits redundant on the Clyde.

“Does the Prime Minister understand that the Scottish people are best served with a government that lives up to their values, a government Prime Minister that prioritises bairns, not bombs?”

But Mr Johnson retaliated, saying: “What the people of Scotland need and deserve is a government that tackles the problems of education in Scotland, that addresses itself to fighting crime and drug addiction in Scotland.

“And a government in Scotland that weans itself off its addiction to constitutional change and constitutional argument and it seems determined to call, in the middle of a pandemic when the country’s trying to move forward together, seems determined and obsessed with nothing else, than breaking up the country and a reckless referendum.”

The SNP leader went on to question the authority of Mr Johnson in imposing such weapons on Scottish soil.

He said: “Of course, this is Prime Minister’s Questions, the Prime Minister, maybe just once, just once, might start to try and answer a question that’s put to him because we’re talking about a Tory plan to impose a 40% increase in nuclear warheads.

“Our children have the right to a future that no longer lives under the shadow of these weapons of mass destruction. As the Irish President said on this St Patrick’s Day, ‘surely we need to find ways to make peace, not war’.

“Every single one of these weapons will be based on the Clyde. So can the Prime Minister tell us exactly when the Scottish people gave him the moral or democratic authority to impose these weapons of mass destruction on our soil in Scotland?”

Responding, Mr Johnson told MPs: “The people of Scotland contribute enormously to the health, happiness, wellbeing and security of this entire country, not least through their contribution to our science, our defences, our international aid and many, many other ways and I’m very proud that this Government is investing record sums in defence, including maintaining our nuclear defence which is absolutely vital for our long-term security.

“And helping thereby to drive jobs not just in Scotland, but across the whole of the UK.”

His Conservative colleague Bernard Jenkin remarked how the Integrated Review had been widely and rightly welcomed as a “bold British vision for our role in the world,” but not in Scotland where the SNP administration believed it was more important to put Indyref2 on the ballot paper for May’s Holyrood election.

“Does he realise they are rejecting the jobs and security that this review guarantees Scotland because they hate the UK more than they want jobs for their own people?”

The PM said it was “hard to know what motivates our friends in the SNP” but they were mistaken in their approach to the review.

To Tory hear-hears, he added: “We are better as one United Kingdom, we’re stronger together as one United Kingdom and the contribution of the people of Scotland to the defence of our United Kingdom is absolutely incredible and has been for centuries.

“That’s what I want to maintain. It’s a fine thing and they should champion it.”