Iain Duncan Smith hits out at attempt to ‘antagonise’ Scots

Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith dismantled Nicola Sturgeon’s and the SNP’s position by saying they pick and choose victories and put the blame for failures on the UK government. Mr Duncan Smith added it was “ironic” for the SNP to want to be part of the European Union whose vaccination programme has been struggling while criticising the UK for holding them back in tackling the pandemic. The Tory MP further claimed the SNP would look for any opportunity to “antagonise” the UK – a move he branded a “disgrace”.

Asked about Nicola Sturgeon’s recent conduct, Mr Duncan Smith told LBC: “Well, something else has gone missing, what it does and you can see this pattern now, is that it’s not just her, of course, its the whole nature of the Scottish Nationalist Party and nationalists in a way. 

“What they’re doing is anything they can do to do-down the United Kingdom is the agenda, and that has been the case from start to finish.

“Anything that goes right they claim for themselves and anything that goes wrong they blame on the Government. 

“And yet, here is the start point that she doesn’t want to talk about, is that there would be no vaccinations in Scotland were it not for the UK Government’s foresight in striking contracts with three or four companies for millions of jabs.

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“The last one you have been talking about now (Novavax), they have done it with Moderna, they have done it with Pfizer/BioNTech and with AstraZeneca. 

“And if she, and it’s clearly what she has said she wants to do, takes Scotland out of the Union that has benefitted so many in Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom and bring it into the EU, she’d be sitting as a very small country at the backend of a queue that still hasn’t started.

“Why? Even if she gets the supply, even if they had the supply of AstraZeneca jab in the last two weeks had they done better in striking the contracts earlier on, they still wouldn’t be able to use them because they still haven’t approved them.

“And that’s the irony here, they claim they need the jab but haven’t approved it.”

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He added: “What is happening here is a seditious attempt to try and deliberately antagonise Scottish people against the rest of the United Kingdom, I think that’s a disgrace.”

The SNP’s Ian Blackford recently commented that the UK is holding Scotland back in tackling the pandemic. 

However, many have criticised the SNP for focusing on independence and putting coronavirus in the background. 

Scottish Labour Leader hopeful Anas Sarwar said independence would not be something he would like the party to pursue currently as many are concerned about the long-lasting impact from coronavirus. 

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The SNP have also criticised the UK for removing them from the EU “against their will” as Scotland voted heavily to remain in the Brexit referendum. 

However, it was pointed out that their intent to rejoin the bloc would not be better than remaining in the UK.

Arguments about vaccines boiled over in the EU as they are expected to lay out plans to ban jab exports which are made on the continent. 

They say AstraZeneca has not fulfilled production contracts and argue their supplies in the UK should be diverted to Europe. 

Europe currently has a lack of vaccines available and European countries pale in comparison to the UK’s vaccination program.  

British firm AstraZeneca has several sites in the UK which are providing our supply but the UK Pfizer jabs developed in Belgium could be affected by the ban. 

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