John Swinney says if he were to be re-elected as Scottish First Minister, he would "intensify pressure" on Parliament over Scotland's bid for independence and accuses the Westminster government of "escaping scrutiny" on the subject. After launching his party's manifesto, the SNP leader adds "we cannot be climate deniers" and that it is "irresponsible" of the prime minister to pledge to authorise 100 new oil and gas licenses. Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Well, what I think is necessary here is that we have a route through the whole debate to
00:06allow us to address the fact that the Scottish Parliament was elected in 2021 with a majority
00:11of MSPs supportive of a referendum on independence. What I'm going to do is intensify the pressure
00:17on the UK government to recognise that Scotland wants to have a democratic opportunity to
00:22choose independence. What's happened up until now is that the Westminster government has
00:26been allowed to essentially escape scrutiny on this question. Well, it comes down to some
00:31pretty fundamental democratic points here. Are we prepared to just ignore the fact that
00:37the Scottish Parliament has within it a majority of members who are committed to independence?
00:43Well, there has to be a rational process to consider how we proceed on oil and gas issues.
00:48So we've got to have an assessment of the evidence and any justification for any new
00:55oil and gas licences. Just now, the Prime Minister is saying that he will authorise
01:00100 new oil and gas licences. That is completely irresponsible. It's about the journey to net
01:05zero and about the economy. We've got to make the journey to net zero. We cannot be climate
01:09deniers. That's what the authorisation by the Prime Minister of 100 oil and gas licences
01:15is all about. It's about denying the climate emergency. I won't do that. We've got to be
01:19deadly serious about tackling the climate emergency. But we've also got to be careful
01:24about the orderly transition that's got to be taken forward for oil and gas. And what
01:29I want to make sure is that Scotland avoids the industrial disruption that took place
01:34under the Thatcher years, where we're still wrestling with the consequences. And the way
01:37through that is to take a considered approach to each application on a case-by-case basis
01:43to determine whether it's compatible with our journey to net zero.