SNP defence policy is a ‘gift to Russia’, says Al Carns

The SNP’s position on defence has been condemned as “a gift to Russia” and “the most amateur politics I’ve ever seen in my life” by a former armed forces minister. Al Carns, who served five operational tours in Afghanistan and was awarded the Military Cross, said the SNP had failed to adequately set out how an independent Scotland would defend itself. Most commented 1 Selma Blair charged with assault after ‘biting flight attendant’ US news 242 comments The Labour MP claimed the threat from Russia meant Scotland’s geographical position was of critical importance and said: “The geography of Scotland is the gateway to the Atlantic”. He added that the SNP “can ignore war, but war and conflict will not ignore Scotland”. Top stories 1 Starbucks ‘explores takeover’ of Chipotle Mexican Grill US business Carns also said Iran and Russia were actively promoting Scottish independence through social media, because encouraging the break-up of the UK was in their interests. “When the Americans and the Israelis struck Iran and destroyed three targets outside Tehran, three per cent of all Scottish independence social media went dark,” he said. Advertisement He added: “Seeing Scotland divided from the United Kingdom is in the main interest of Russia and Iran. So the SNP, by not engaging constructively and strategically in defence is a gift to Russia, and it’s the most amateur politics I’ve ever seen in my life.” Top stories 1 Rental tracker: have rents gone up or down in your area? Property & Home Carns served as parliamentary under-secretary for the armed forces under Sir Keir Starmer before resigning this year in protest over defence spending. He said the SNP’s insistence that the nuclear base at Faslane should close in the event of independence was “incompatible” with Nato membership. Al Carns served five operational tours in Afghanistan before entering politics Al Carns “Our nuclear deterrent is the only nuclear deterrent capability that is allocated to Nato,” he said. “Not many people know that. You cannot say we want to be a member of Nato, but we don’t want a nuclear capability in Scotland — these two things are incompatible.” Carns argued that turning its back on Faslane would cost Scotland massive investment and thousands of jobs. “There’s a more human element to this,” he said. “To say no to the nuclear deterrent you lose in excess of 25,000 jobs in the west of Scotland overnight. So you’ve got to tell the population of Glasgow, Helensburgh and Faslane that you are going to make a huge amount of them unemployed. Advertisement “The other thing is the amount of investment in defence infrastructure — I think it’s £4bn on maritime ports and a large part of that allocation is going into Faslane. So you’ve got to convince the Scottish population that none of that at all is going into Faslane [under independence].” The naval base at Faslane Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Carns also questioned the SNP’s failure to produce detailed analysis of defence policy in an independent Scotland. The party published a defence independence paper in 2024 called an independent Scotland’s place in the world , which proposed the country could create its own 20,000-strong Scottish army, as well as a Scottish intelligence agency. Kate Forbes: SNP can no longer afford to duck the defence debate It was also claimed Scotland would scrap nuclear weapons but would apply to join Nato, a suggestion which Tom Tugendhat, then security minister, said would be the “oddest application” to the nuclear alliance he had ever heard of. Advertisement Carns pointed to an information gap in the SNP’s defence policy, saying: “How much are they going to spend? How much are they going to keep from the UK? What is the division? What are the roles and responsibilities in Nato? They haven’t talked about any of this which is the toxically amateur level of SNP politics in the first place.” Scotland newsletter Your weekend briefing from the Scotland edition of The Times and The Sunday Times. Sign up with one click You’ve successfully signed up to the Scotland newsletter Explore our newsletters An error occurred. Please use the link below. Scotland newsletter Explore our newsletters He added: “If the SNP turns round and produces evidence to show Scotland will be better off and be able to protect itself, and play its part in the world I’ll have a look at it, but I haven’t seen any of that. “I wonder about their logic and their sanity, to be honest. If you genuinely want the Scottish people to be better off then none of the analysis shows that, so what are you doing? I shake my head, it beggars belief.” Dave Doogan, the SNP’s Westminster leader, said: “Scotland is a net contributor to the cost of UK defence, a dynamic which sees more money spent on defence in the South West of England alone than in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland put together. Dave Doogan, the SNP’s Westminster leader IMAGEPLOTTER/ALAMY “Successive Westminster Tory and Labour mismanagement has seen Army numbers decimated, the Royal Navy can’t put to sea a functioning destroyer or frigate and the RAF can’t defend their own airbases. Advertisement “Scotland’s de facto defence budget within the UK is in the region of £5bn annually which would achieve far greater defence of our territory by funding sovereign Scottish defence forces based in Scotland with independence. “Rather than playing politics with defence, we have been clear that the UK must work with the EU on defence spending to support Ukraine rather than finding itself increasingly isolated from our European partners — that’s the pragmatic way forward and through a fresh start with independence we will be rejoining the EU and joining our allies in Nato. “Scotland’s defence manufacturing sector plays a key role in Scotland’s economy and we support increased expenditure in the face of the evolving threat environment we now face — the SNP will demand our fair share of that increased defence spend and the question now begs whether the Labour Party will honour their own pledge to increase defence spending at the budget.”