No talk of state visit until US gives ‘full scale’ Ukraine support, Swinney says
Scotland’s First Minister also said there needs to be an ‘honest debate’ about taxation.
The UK “shouldn’t be talking” of giving Donald Trump another state visit in light of the “unacceptable” scenes in the Oval Office, John Swinney has said.
Scotland’s First Minister also said there needs to be an “honest debate” about taxation in light of the increase to defence spending.
He has called on the offer of a state visit to the UK to be rescinded unless the US president gives “full scale” backing to Ukraine.
His comments come as European leaders discuss the way forward following the angry clash between Mr Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House, which was broadcast around the world.
Some reports have suggested Mr Trump is considering halting US aid to Ukraine, which recently marked the three-year anniversary of the Russian invasion.
Meanwhile, an online petition from 38 Degrees titled “No second state visit for Trump” has reached more than 125,000 signatures.
Speaking to the PA news agency at Bute House, his official residence in Edinburgh, Mr Swinney said Mr Zelensky was “the courageous leader of the courageous Ukrainian people” and a “completely unacceptable sequence of events” had taken place at the White House.
He said: “Until such time as we know the United States are going to be full scale partners with us and allied with us in protecting Ukrainian independence – which is fundamental to the protection of European liberal democracy – then I don’t think we should be talking about a second state visit for President Trump.”
The First Minister said he would still engage with the president if he decided to come to Scotland, where he owns two golf courses and has family roots.
The SNP leader said he is supportive of the concept of a European assurance mechanism in Ukraine, but said MPs must vote on any plan put forward by the UK Government.
At a press conference earlier this week, Mr Swinney restated his opposition to the Trident nuclear deterrent – a longstanding view of the SNP.
He has argued the money could be better spent on conventional forces.
In response to calls to expand the UK’s armed forces, Mr Swinney told PA there needs to be an “open debate” on defence priorities.
He said: “I don’t think I’ve felt at any moment in my life that there is such a degree of uncertainty about the international situation as I feel at this particular moment.
“So that will raise important questions about defence, but we’ve got to have an open and comprehensive conversation about that.”
Pressed on how any increase in defence spending should be paid for, given the SNP’s opposition to cutting international aid, he said: “I think we’ve got to have that honest debate about taxation priorities.
“I think the UK had a completely false debate about tax at the general election last year.”
Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, the Prime Minister said he would not be driven into a debate on the state visit for Mr Trump.
“I’m not going to be diverted by the SNP or others trying to ramp up the rhetoric without really appreciating what is the single most important thing at stake in Europe,” the Prime Minister told the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.
Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer presented Mr Trump with a letter from the King which suggested meeting at Balmoral in Aberdeenshire or Dumfries House in East Ayrshire ahead of a state visit.
The First Minister last spoke to the US President in a call on December 10, in which they discussed Mr Trump’s love of Scotland, where his mother Mary Anne MacLeod was born.
However the president’s son Eric earlier said it was “nasty” of the First Minister to endorse his Democrat rival ahead of the presidential election, saying Mr Swinney had “read the temperature very wrong”.
