{"id":791480,"date":"2026-10-04T07:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T07:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791480\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T07:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T07:48:15","slug":"scots-tory-leader-to-decry-independence-and-fms-summit-with-sinn-fein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791480\/","title":{"rendered":"Scots Tory leader to decry independence and FM\u2019s summit with Sinn Fein"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Russell Findlay is expected to lambast the idea of Scottish independence and the First Minister\u2019s recent summit with Sinn F\u00e9in.<\/p>\n

The Scottish Conservative leader will speak later on Sunday at a party conference in Birmingham<\/a>, where he will discuss \u201cirresponsible\u201d independence, and the recent \u201cseparatist summit\u201d in Cardiff.<\/p>\n

Mr Findlay is expected to say: \u201cSince Mr Swinney was a teenager, all he\u2019s cared about is breaking up the United Kingdom<\/a>. Sorry Mr Swinney, and your new friends in Sinn F\u00e9in, but we won\u2019t let that happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been speaking with families who\u2019ve lost loved ones to IRA terrorism. They\u2019re angry and upset at Scotland\u2019s First Minister forming a pact with the IRA\u2019s former political wing.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s not forget that Sinn F\u00e9in has never denounced the IRA slaughter of innocent men, women, and children. Or the murder of many brave service men and women, including Scottish soldiers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr the bomb they planted at this very conference in 1984 \u2013 murdering five people including Muriel Maclean, the wife of former Scottish Conservative president Sir Donald Maclean. Yet Mr Swinney works with them to destroy the United Kingdom. A disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

He will add:\u00a0\u201cJust last week, Putin\u2019s foreign minister was talking up the Cardiff gathering of Swinney, Sinn F\u00e9in and Welsh nationalists. That tells you everything you need to know.\u00a0A divided UK is a gift to our enemies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already know that many of the most noisy and aggressive Scottish nationalists are in fact Iranian regime bots.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuriously tweeting about freedom not from Troon or Twechar, but Tehran.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Swinney<\/a> is still backing a proposed Chinese wind turbine factory in the Highlands despite concerns about its threat to national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Findlay will also discuss jobs at Faslane, international security threats from China, Russia, and Iran, and that these nations would see an independent Scotland as an opportunity.<\/p>\n

He will conclude his statement by saying:\u00a0\u201cThese totalitarian regimes want a divided United Kingdom. And we have SNP politicians who share that aim. They want to shut down Faslane. They oppose Britain\u2019s armed forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn today\u2019s volatile world, relentless SNP agitation about independence is no longer just a dangerous distraction. It is now dangerously irresponsible.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you imagine what kind of foreign policy an independent SNP-run Scotland might have?<\/p>\n

\u201cOne that puts Sinn F\u00e9in over IRA victims, Chinese interests over national security and pro-Palestine posturing over the safety of Scotland\u2019s Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commenting, SNP MSP Alex Kerr said: \u201cNothing will strengthen Scotland\u2019s standing in the world more than becoming an independent country and rejoining the international community in our own right for the first time in over 300 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn May of this year the SNP were returned to government for a historic fifth term on a pledge to give the people of Scotland a referendum on independence \u2013 while Russell Findlay led his party to its worst ever Scottish Parliament election result.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussell Findlay is completely obsessed with the SNP, so it\u2019s no surprise he\u2019d rather spend his conference speech talking about us, rather than what he has to offer the people of Scotland \u2013 which is clearly very little.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-791480","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\/791480","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=791480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}