John Swinney: Scotland given 'poison pills' and policy scraps from UK table

Scotland is being given "poison pills" and policy scraps from the UK table instead of flourishing on its own two feet, John Swinney has insisted.

Speaking at a conference about Scotland in 2050, the First Minister said the country is "prey to a failing system and a failing economic model".

He said it was "understandable" that Scotland is not on Westminster's radar in the same way as London, the Midlands or the South West. However, he argued it was "total folly" to accept this.

First Minister John Swinney addressing the Scotland 2050 conference in Edinburgh | PA

Mr Swinney told attendees independence is “the defining choice for this generation”.

Scottish Conservative deputy leader Rachael Hamilton accused him of “throwing a slab of red meat to diehard nationalists by once again fixating on his party’s obsession with breaking up the UK”.

She added: “Hard-pressed Scots want the First Minister to focus on fixing the mess the crisis he’s created in our public services and reducing the taxes he’s hiked, not pandering to his disgruntled base. The public are sick and tired of the SNP’s relentless push for independence.”

Addressing the special one-day conference in Edinburgh, Mr Swinney said: “I’ve long believed that Scotland is an afterthought to successive UK governments. Scotland is not on Westminster’s radar in the same way as, say, London or the Midlands or the South West.

“From a UK perspective, that is completely understandable, but from a Scottish perspective, to accept it is total folly. It holds us back in ways big and small, leaving us waiting and praying that decisions taken at Westminster are not too damaging.

“We are prey to a failing system and a failing economic model, a system that delivers for the very few at the very top, while living standards stagnate and real wages are squeezed for the vast majority.

“It means as a nation that we must try to thrive on what amounts at worst to poison pills and at best to policy scraps from the UK table. All this when we have the capacity to stand and to flourish on our own two feet.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar later addressed the same conference, using his speech as a pitch for his party ahead of next year’s election. “If I’m being blunt about it, tinkering around the edges is not going to work,” he said.