THE UK Defence Secretary has said Scotland would be “definitely more vulnerable” to terrorism threats if it became independent as it would lose access to vital shared intelligence.

Ben Wallace said independence would also make Scotland more open to Russian aggression if the Trident nuclear deterrent was removed from the Faslane base on the Clyde.

In addition, he suggested Russia was meddling in the independence debate, saying it had an interest in magnifying nationalist division around Europe, including in Scotland.

A former MSP, Mr Wallace said the Alex Salmond he first knew was “deeply respected”, but had since undermined his credibility by working for a Kremlin-funded TV channel.

“No one's credibility is served by going on Russia Today,” he said.

Mr Wallace made the comments while speaking to the Scottish Parliamentary Journalists Association at the Ministry of Defence.

He said Scotland currently benefited from the “heft” of the United Kingdom’s work on countering terrorism at home and overseas, and from its global embassy network.

He said: “The scale of the Foreign Office that you need to reach global terrorism.. means that on your own you would be lesser and [less] able therefore to share intelligence.

You probably wouldn't benefit from the Five Eyes [intelligence alliance between the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand] because you would have left the United Kingdom and therefore be not part of the Five Eyes treaties and arrangement that has been in existence since the late 1940s.

"And without intelligence, you are definitely more vulnerable.”

Asked if the SNP-Green plan to expel Trident from an independent Scotland would play into Vladimir Putin’s hands, Mr Wallace said: “Well I'd certainly say that Russia's aggression doesn't know any boundaries when it comes when to whether the country is big or small. Russia certainly exploits vulnerabilities in smaller countries, I notice.

“If you look at its role in corrupting political systems or indeed trying to weaken countries such as the Baltic states etc, it'll try everything it can to do so, to spread division.

“So, would Putin respect Scotland more because it didn't have nuclear weapons? No, I don't think so. He doesn't have any track record of leaving alone countries without nuclear weapons. In fact, sometimes it's quite the opposite.”

Mr Wallace was a Tory list MSP for North East Scotland from 1999 to 2003, and a Lancashire MP since 2005, currently for Wyre and Preston North.

READ MORE:

He was Northern Ireland minister from 2015 to 2016 under David Cameron, security minister to 2019 under Theresa May, then promoted to Defence Secretary by Boris Johnson.Asked if there was evidence of Russian interference in the current Scottish independence online, he said: “I think what we've seen is Russia and other nations take an interest to magnify division in nationalist debates around Europe, including Scotland.

“I can’t talk about the here and now [for security reasons] but I could say there is an interest - and more than that.”

Last year, Westminster’s Intelligence and Security Committee said Russian interference in UK politics was the new normal and there was "credible open-source commentary that Russia undertook to influence campaigns” in relation to the 2014 independence referendum.

Mr Wallace said: “As security minister at the time - not 2014, but as a security minister after that - I’ll take the word of the Westminster committee over the SNP.”

Asked if he had seen evidence of Russian interference in the 2014, he said: “I can’t comment on what I see in intelligence matters.”

He also dismissed SNP claims that by funding more road and infrastructure work in Scotland directly, rather than via Holyrood, London was undermining devolution.

He said: “I think when the Scottish Parliament used to take money from the European Union, they didn’t think that was undermining devolution, did they?

“I think it's a bogus argument to say that it is undermining devolution. I think the people of Scotland care about just having good roads, I don’t think they care who funded it. 

“They didn't care who funded it when the European Union funded it. Certainly in the Highlands, no one came to me as an MSP and complained that it was Objective One funding that would pay for it rather than Scottish Parliament funding.”

SNP defence spokesperson Stewart McDonald MP said: “These comments from Ben Wallace are just more of the same old scaremongering. Clearly the Tories are rattled about the level of support for independence.

“These comments are especially rich, given the UK government has a record of underestimating and failing to respond to Russian interference – as set out just last year in the Commons Intelligence Select Committee report. Since that report was published, not a single recommendation has been acted on.

“The substance of his claim that an independent Scotland would be more vulnerable to terrorism is nonsense – independent nations large and small, across Europe and beyond, cooperate on intelligence gathering all the time, and Scotland is no different.”

“An independent Scotland, as a member of NATO and the EU, will act as a credible, reliable and responsible ally. I look forward to setting out that case ahead of a referendum on Scotland’s future."