Nicola Sturgeon defends plan to 'move away' from Trident and nuclear weapons in Scotland

The First Minister has insisted Scotland should move away from being a home to nuclear weapons as she defended her plans to scrap Trident.

In an interview with Channel 4, Nicola Sturgeon was asked if her opinion on nuclear power had changed since Russian President Vladimir Putin had threatened nuclear warfare.

“I believe the whole world should move away from nuclear weapons,” Sturgeon replied.

“I believe the situation we are in where somebody like Vladimir Putin – firstly, the situation we are in is entirely, 100%, the fault of Vladimir Putin – but the fact that anybody can threaten nuclear warfare is an argument against nuclear weapons, not an argument for them.”

She said she wants to see her country “safely and responsibly move away from Trident”, which is based at HMNB Clyde on the west coast of Scotland.

In her run-up to becoming Prime Minister, Liz Truss vowed to bolster Britain’s defences, including by pushing ahead with renewing Trident.

Sturgeon said whether the nuclear weapon is continued or not, it is a UK Government decision, but she wishes to see it removed from north of the border.

Speaking about the prospects of Trident in an independent Scotland, Sturgeon added: “It’s not up to me… to decide whether Trident was scrapped or not, that would be a UK Government decision, it would be for Scottish governments to decide whether Trident was based in Scotland, and the position of my party, the strong position, is that it shouldn’t be.”

Journalist Ciaran Jenkins, interviewing Sturgeon, then challenged the Scottish leader on her financial proposals for an independent Scotland.

Referencing the Bank of England’s recent input to “rescue pensions”, he said: “What you’re proposing is to informally use sterling, to have no lender of last resort there to step in and intervene to save people’s pensions, mortgages and savings.”

Sturgeon replied: “I would hope governments (in an) independent Scotland wouldn’t bring pension funds to the point of collapse like the UK Government did two weeks ago.”

She added: “I, in the next couple of weeks, will publish a paper, the latest in our series of papers making the case for independence, looking at the economics of independence, part of that will be currency and the financial institutions we would have.

“So in terms of your questions about lender of last resort, etc, we would, the minute Scotland chose to become independent, start to create a Scottish Central Bank, which while we were still using the pound, pound sterling, would have lender of last resort functions for the financial services industry.

“Ultimately we would be seeking to move to a Scottish pound where the Scottish Central Bank would take on those wider functions.”

Mr Jenkins then put it to the Scottish leader when it comes to currency, “there is no country that you can point to that is doing anything remotely like what you’re doing”.

Sturgeon defended her plan, adding: “My plan is to move to a Scottish currency… to informally use sterling until we move to a Scottish currency.”