SNP playing ‘old tune' on independence, says Slater
SNP leader and First Minister John Swinney announced on Monday that a majority for his party at next year's election should be enough to secure a second vote on independence, as it was for the first in 2014.
But speaking to the PA news agency, Ms Slater – who was launching her campaign for re-election as party co-leader in Edinburgh – said she does not expect an SNP majority next May.
'This is an old tune that the SNP have been playing,' she said.
'There are several pro-independence parties in the Scottish Parliament – the Greens have been there all along, from the beginning.
'John Swinney, I think, is being a little disingenuous.
'We had a successful pro-independence majority with the Bute House Agreement that the SNP decided to end.'
On her ideas for forcing the UK Government to allow a second referendum, Ms Slater said it is up to those who believe in independence to 'build support' for it.
'We do that by setting out what independence looks like and why it's important,' she said.
'We hear all the time how Brexit has damaged Scotland, it hurts our labour force, meaning business cannot hire employees that they need, it hurts our NHS, we cannot get the carers and workers, and it hurts all of us in our pockets.
'Scottish independence would allow us to build a compassionate asylum system, it would allow us to rejoin the EU, it would allow us to rethink our taxation of wealth, for example.
'Instead of waiting, waiting, waiting for the Government in Westminster to decide what to do, we could make those kinds of decisions here in Scotland, and that's how we win Scottish independence, by getting more people to share that vision.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
France treaty to return Channel migrants is not ‘silver bullet', Cooper says
Yvette Cooper has said the deal struck with France to return Channel migrants will not stop the crossings on their own, as she refused to confirm how many migrants would be returned under the scheme. The Home Secretary said the agreement, which begins on Tuesday, was about the principle rather than the number itself. Ms Cooper pointed to a similar accord between Greece and Turkey in 2016 which she said brought down numbers of migrants to Greece. Migrants for the swap will begin to be detained from Wednesday, she told broadcasters. It is hoped the first migrants will be returned by the end of August. In exchange Britain will receive asylum seekers who have ties to the country through a legal route. Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Ms Cooper said: 'We never claimed that there is a single silver bullet on this. So this goes alongside the 28% increase in returns of failed asylum seekers that we have brought in. 'It goes alongside the change to those French maritime rules that I referred to which means France taking action in French waters to prevent boat crossings in the first place, and the much stronger law enforcement that we announced earlier this week with the additional National Crime Agency investigators and police to be able to go after the criminal gangs. We have to do all of these things.' Ms Cooper said the Government does not want to put a number on the amount of Channel migrants that will be returned to France, as she believed it could aid criminal gangs. It has been reported that about 50 a week could be sent to France. This would be a stark contrast to the more than 800 people every week who on average have arrived in the UK via small boat this year. She told BBC Radio 4: 'We are not putting an overall figure on this programme. 'Of course, it will start with lower numbers and then build, but we want to be able to expand it. We want to be able to increase the number of people returned through this programme.' She added: 'We will provide regular updates, people will be able to see how many people are being detained, how many people are being returned, and it is right that we should be transparent around that. 'But we're not setting the numbers in advance, firstly because there is no fixed number in terms of the overall number of people to come through this system, and secondly because we're not going to provide (gangs) with that operational information.' The initial agreement will be in place until June 2026. Ms Cooper told Nick Ferrari on LBC that the UK will do security checks in France on the asylum seekers who are brought to the UK in exchange for returned Channel migrants. They will have their biometric data taken. She also said any family members of successful asylum seekers brought to the UK would be included in the quota, so would have an equivalent number sent back to France. Some 25,436 people have already made the journey this year, according to PA news agency analysis of Home Office figures – 49% higher than at the same point in 2024. She continued: 'I think this is the right principle that we should be pursuing, that people who are arriving on small boats should, frankly, be returned to France. They're coming on illegal boats, they're paying thousands of pounds to people smugglers. That money should be lost, and they should be returned. 'And also the principle that where we take people from other countries, we should do so through a legal process, where people have gone through security checks. Those are the right principles to establish.' On Monday, shadow home secretary Chris Philp attacked the plans, saying they would return 'just 6% of illegal arrivals' and 'make no difference whatsoever'. Ms Cooper also told broadcasters that the Government was still aiming to close asylum hotels by the end of the Parliament. She said just over 200 were still operating. She told BBC Radio 4: 'The big blockage now is in the appeals system, again, a broken system that we've inherited. We're going to have to do some major reforms to the appeals system, setting those out later this year. 'I think it's just unacceptable that if you've got somebody who has been turned down in the asylum system, on a fair basis, they can end up then still being stuck in the system even for years, as a result of delays in the asylum system.'
CNN
27 minutes ago
- CNN
Ken Paxton's long-distance quest for a Trump endorsement
Donald Trump Congressional news Senate election US electionsFacebookTweetLink Follow Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently found himself roughly 4,500 miles from home as he sought one thing that could give him an edge in his bitter primary fight against GOP Sen. John Cornyn: an endorsement from President Donald Trump. On the last Saturday in July, Paxton was in the Scottish village of Turnberry at the president's luxury golf resort, where the Texas attorney general encountered his occasional golf partner out on the links of Trump Turnberry. Trump and Paxton did not play a round together on the course in western Scotland that overlooks the Irish Sea, and it's not clear if the president was expecting to see him there. But the two crossed paths, according to three people familiar with the exchange, and spoke privately for several minutes about the Texas race. The White House initially denied that any such encounter took place between Trump and Paxton. Asked again Monday about the accounts from the people familiar with the pair's exchange, an official did not respond to a request for comment. The president is paying remarkably close attention to the Texas Senate race, aides said, and all House and Senate contests that will help determine whether Republicans hold their majorities after the 2026 midterm elections. He talks to candidates regularly, aides said, and has signaled his intent to be more pragmatic with endorsements than during his first term in office. Paxton's trip to Scotland, which has not been previously reported, offers the latest window into the lengths to which the firebrand Texan has gone to court Trump's support in his insurgent primary bid against Cornyn. Earlier this summer, a pro-Paxton PAC aired its first TV ad in Palm Beach, Florida, where it could be seen from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, rather than by voters in Texas. Paxton is, according to numerous public and private polls, holding strong advantages over Cornyn in next March's primary. But he is still struggling to raise money compared to the Republican incumbent, who has the full support of Senate leadership and is himself a powerhouse fundraiser. Paxton himself believes that if he could secure an endorsement from Trump, it would further tilt the race in his favor and essentially end Cornyn's chances of reelection, according to multiple people close to him. He is close to the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., who was also on hand at Trump Turnberry late last month. If Paxton becomes the Republican nominee, Democrats are poised to invest even more heavily in a seat they believe could become competitive in deep-red Texas, marking another potential opening in an uphill battle to win control of the Senate. National Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, have remained steadfastly behind Cornyn, saying he could win the primary and general election and help keep the Senate in GOP hands. Trump, however, has remained notably neutral in the race, despite Senate GOP leaders urging White House officials to support Cornyn. 'Well, I would love to see that happen,' Thune told CNN, referring to Trump coming off the sidelines to endorse Cornyn. 'But I think he's waiting to see how the race develops. Cleary, it's one of those races around the country where we have an incumbent and a primary election that could be competitive and very costly.' The battle in Texas between Cornyn and Paxton has become one of the early marquee primary contests in the midterm election cycle. The two men, who have long been fierce rivals, are locked in an aggressive pursuit of Trump's endorsement. And then there's GOP Rep. Wesley Hunt, who is eying a run in the Senate primary, should one of the other Republicans falter before March. He, too, is a fierce Trump loyalist. The president has been closely following as the Texas race takes shape, aides said, and has told supporters of Cornyn and Paxton that he was in no rush to choose a favorite. Both men have repeatedly invoked Trump in their respective campaigns. 'The biggest potential loser is President Trump's agenda,' Cornyn told reporters earlier this year, derisively describing Paxton's race for the Senate as a 'con man's vanity project.' Paxton survived a bipartisan impeachment effort in Texas in no small part because of the unwavering support from Trump and other conservative allies. Paxton has accused Cornyn of turning his back on Trump, particularly as the former president battled his own legal challenges. 'Texans deserve another conservative senator,' Paxton posted on X last year, blasting Cornyn for being a member of the Republican establishment after nearly a quarter-century in Washington. But Cornyn has increasingly demonstrated unflinching loyalty to Trump and points to a voting record that has been mostly in line with the president over the years. While Trump's brash style may align more closely with Paxton, a Republican strategist close to the White House said any endorsement by the president would be based on whom he believes is in a stronger position to keep Democrats from picking up a Senate seat. 'Winning is all that matters to the president,' the Republican strategist told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss conversations with the president, suggesting loyalty may not be the most important factor in Trump's mindset of whether – or whom – to endorse.
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
What actually went wrong at Jaguar
Nearly a year ago, Jaguar unveiled a refreshed brand identity that was supposed to usher in its future. So far, it's been mostly a headache. The 102-year-old luxury automake r, once a head-to-head competitor with brands like Mercedes-Benz and BMW, had been plagued with problems even before the advertising campaign was released, including leadership changes, declining sales amid a stale lineup and stiff competition from the likes of both German luxury carmakers as well as relative upstarts like Tesla. Now it can add two more problems: misleading headlines about its sales, and outrage from the political right — most notably the US president. On Monday, President Donald Trump trashed Jaguar for what he called a 'stupid' and 'seriously WOKE' ad campaign last year, which featured an avant-garde commercial that featured slogans such as 'live vivid,' and what appeared to be gender-fluid models, but zero images of its cars or even concepts of a car. 'Who wants to buy a Jaguar after looking at that disgraceful ad,' quipped Trump on Truth Social. 'The market cap destruction has been unprecedented with BILLIONS OF DOLLARS SO FOOLISHLY LOST.' But the reality is different. Jaguar Land Rover has been owned by Tata Motors since 2008, when the Indian company bought it from Ford, which means Jaguar doesn't have a market cap. And Tata itself is doing fine as a massive multinational conglomerate with a wide variety of operations worth about $28 billion. Plus, Jaguar's problems are more fundamental. Although most legacy automakers have tried to manage a smooth transition to fully electric propulsion, Jaguar simply ceased making cars entirely in 2024 pulling all of its products off the market as it tries to reinvent itself as an electric vehicle maker. But that's enough to establish a narrative in the minds of many. Headlines swirled last month that Jaguar's sales across Europe were down 97.5% year-over-year in April, citing data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association. That makes sense given Jaguar stopped manufacturing cars but the news was enough to draw the wrath of Trump and some conservatives. Shortly after the ad was released, Jaguar revealed its Type 00 concept car at Miami Art Week — notably, not at a traditional automotive show. While the concept isn't intended for production, it is meant to show Jaguar's general future design direction. Jaguar didn't respond to a question from CNN about when it will start production again. Last week, Jaguar Land Rover CEO Adrian Mardell announced he was stepping down after 35 years with the brand. He had a largely successful stint, having helped eliminate billions of dollars of debt and with JLR reporting its ninth consecutive profitable quarter in January on the back of strong SUV sales. Tata Motors on Monday named P.B. Balaji, currently the company's chief financial officer, as Jaguar Land Rover's new CEO. He begins in November. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
