John Cooper

John Cooper

Conservative — Dumfries and Galloway

Speaking in the House of Commons on 12 November 2026

Debate

Defence in the High North

Contribution

I commend the Chair of the Defence Committee and his colleagues for a tremendous report. As he rightly mentioned, Scotland is effectively on the frontline of the new potential battleground of the High North. Will the Chair be circling back to the report to see whether there has been progress? Scotland is critical to closing the frigate gap; BAE Systems on the Clyde and Babcock in Rosyth on the east coast are building warships even as we speak. I am concerned by recent comments made by Scotland’s First Minister, John Swinney, who claimed that Britain is in some way abandoning Scotland to the Russian threat, when in fact one of the real threats to national security in this country is the Scottish National party’s separatist agenda: it is not sure whether it wants to be in NATO or out of NATO, and it wants the nuclear submarines out of Faslane. It is a strange picture, so I wonder whether the hon. Gentleman might go back to that?

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