{"id":576542,"date":"2026-05-10T14:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/576542\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T14:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:47:08","slug":"stephen-flynn-pans-sky-news-host-for-branding-indyref2-separatist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/576542\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Flynn pans Sky News host for branding indyref2 ‘separatist’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Interviewing Flynn following the SNP’s success in the Holyrood election<\/a>, Trevor Phillips quizzed the new Aberdeen<\/a> Deeside and North Kincardine<\/a> MSP on whether his party were going to demand another referendum from Westminster<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n After Flynn argued \u201cperfectly reasonable\u201d for Scotland to call for one, Phillips asked him if he was going to be encouraging the Plaid Cymru leader and Northern Ireland first minister Michelle O’Neill “to call for separatist referendums” so that “you become the leaders of the movement to break up the United Kingdom”.\n<\/p>\n

\n Plaid Cymru became the largest party in the Senedd<\/a> on Friday meaning that all three devolved nations of the UK are set to have pro-independence leaders for the first time.\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE: The cringiest and silliest moments of the 2026 Holyrood election<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n Flynn hit back at Phillips and said: “Separatist is such a negative word Trevor, we’re nationalists who believe in a prosperous, welcoming independent Scotland.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Following a sarcastic response from Phillips, Flynn went on: “It’s for the people of Wales to determine their future, it’s for the people of the north of Ireland to determine their future.\n<\/p>\n

\n “It’s for the people of Scotland to determine their future and as you’ve highlighted there is a high number of independence-supporting MSPs in Holyrood<\/a>, now a record-breaking number of independence-supporting MSPs in Holyrood and I think it’s only right Whitehall wakes up to that reality.\n<\/p>\n

\n “But if I may also just reflect upon the fact that for very many months people were saying the SNP were not going to achieve a victory, when in actual fact we’ve achieved a landslide.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n “When John Swinney<\/a> took over as the First Minister of Scotland we were projected to get 30 to 35 seats within the parliament. We got 58, 38% of the vote, far in excess of anything Keir Starmer<\/a> achieved at the last General Election.\n<\/p>\n

\n “That’s testament to the leadership of John Swinney. The public have put their trust in him, they’ve put their trust in us, and it’s now time that Westminster put their trust in the people of Scotland to allow them to decide their own constitutional future.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Despite the fact the SNP fell short of an overall majority, the record-breaking 15 MSPs the Greens secured means the Scottish Parliament now has its highest-ever level of pro-independence politicians in the chamber<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE: Scottish Labour insiders deliver verdict on Holyrood election defeat<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n Scottish Labour<\/a> only managed to return 17 MSPs to tie with Reform UK. The Conservatives meanwhile came out with just 12, their worst-ever result.\n<\/p>\n

\n Flynn won the Aberdeen Deeside and North Kincardine seat<\/a> in the Scottish Parliament, meaning there will be a by-election in his Aberdeen South Westminster seat and he will eventually be replaced as the party’s leader in the Commons<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Interviewing Flynn following the SNP’s success in the Holyrood election, Trevor Phillips quizzed the new Aberdeen Deeside and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-576542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}