Streeting rejects Swinney's 'defenceless Scotland' claim

During Thursday's First Minister's Questions, Mr Swinney told: "I think that our country is being left defenceless by the appalling approach to defence taken by the UK Government."

He made a similar case during his speech to the SNP conference in Aberdeen earlier this month, where he said the UK was "failing to keep Scotland secure". He argued that in an age of drones, sabotage and cyber attacks, nuclear weapons had "never been so obsolete".

Mr Swinney told delegates: "The UK has the means to kill millions of people in minutes. Yet Scotland’s vast coastline is left dangerously exposed.

"That is a choice no Scottish leader would ever ever make. The UK’s focus is on projecting power

"My focus is on protecting people. That’s the real security that Scotland needs in the twenty-first century."

Mr Streeting pointed to the deployment of the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales as part of a Nato operation in the North Atlantic. He said: "That is very visible proof that what the First Minister said is both irresponsible and unfounded."

He told journalists: “I don’t think the SNP should be playing party politics with national defence and security, we would much rather work with them.

“In terms of the risk of leaving the UK with insufficient defence, one of the biggest risks facing that security is the SNP’s position on unilateral nuclear disarmament.

“It is by far and away the most important deterrent that we have and it is not just the UK’s deterrent, it is Nato’s deterrent.

“So any time the SNP says that a separate Scotland could be a Nato member, they have to first explain how their white flag policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament would work under a nuclear alliance.”

Mr Streeting also told journalists that he does not believe Russian President Vladimir Putin “would be foolish enough to seek a direct war with Nato today”, but added: “What I can’t be certain of is at some point in the future he might not try, and that is Nato’s threat assessment.”

He said this is why the UK Government is “building our capability, building our defence industry, including here in Scotland, and building our alliances, so that we are strong and therefore able to deter any potential Russian threat”.

The remarks came a day after the Russian president told a press conference in Moscow that Russia was ready for a conflict with Europe but did not want one, warning that if things went too far there would be no winners.

Mr Streeting said that was why the UK Government was “building our capability, building our defence industry, including here in Scotland, and building our alliances, so that we are strong and therefore able to deter any potential Russian threat”.

The visit to Scotstoun was also used to set out new “offset” rules under which foreign firms awarded defence contracts worth more than £50m must invest an equivalent amount in UK factories, jobs and training. The Ministry of Defence will apply the rules case by case from April 2027.

Mr Streeting said Labour was “delivering the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the cold war”, with a target of 3.5% of GDP by 2035. He said: “We can see in Ukraine that the nature of warfare is changing, the nature of the threat is rising, so we can’t afford to stand still.”

The UK Government has been criticised for not setting out in Wednesday’s Budget how it will reach its commitment to spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2030, with the decision pushed back to next year’s spending review.

UK defence spending is estimated at 2.6% of GDP this year.

Labour's Tan Dhesi, who chairs the Commons defence committee, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday: “We had hoped to see that the chancellor would set out a precise pathway to spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2030.”

Mr Streeting rejected the charge on the same programme. He said: “I don’t think the charge he makes of delaying or kicking the can down the road stacks up against the extra money that is already going into defence and the capability we’re funding right now.”

He added on Friday: “The people of Scotland and people right across the United Kingdom can draw comfort and security in the knowledge that we have some extraordinary capability at our disposal across our Armed Forces, as well as our special forces, and the protection of the Nato alliance.”