Responding to the second round of armed forces cuts by the UK Government yesterday, the SNP called for clarity form the Ministry of Defence over how many of the 4,500 redundancies would be made in Scotland.
Over the last decade 10,500 defence jobs have been lost in Scotland accompanied by a £5.6bn underspend.
Commenting, SNP Westminster leader and Defence spokesperson Angus Robertson MP said:
“Given the disproportionate defence cuts Scotland has already endured, we must have absolute clarity from the UK Government over where this latest round of redundancies will be made.
“Any further defence cuts in Scotland will compound the 10,500 defence job losses and £5.6billion underspend Scotland has been hit with over the last decade from Westminster.”
Mr Robertson attacked the UK’s obsession with an obsolete nuclear weapons system that he said offered little defence in the 32st century and called for conventional front-line forces to be prioritised over the Trident “sacred cow”.
He added:
“Majority Scottish opinion, our churches, the Scottish Trade Union Congress and Civic Society, all oppose Trident, yet the UK Government wants to use Scottish tax-payers money to pay for these weapons of mass destruction while cutting conventional defence.
“Any way you look at it – on moral, financial, or defence grounds – renewal of Trident is completely untenable in the face of these redundancies.
“A normal country with the power to decide its own defence and security policy would never be pushed into this crazy situation. Scotland must have independence to determine its own priorities, rather than have somebody else’s imposed on it.”