Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander has urged First Minister John Swinney to focus on the “crisis on Scotland’s streets” that led to 1,133 drugs deaths last year, rather than on independence.
Speaking after official figures showed the rise in deaths, Mr Alexander said it was “deeply upsetting” that Scotland continues to have the highest drugs deaths rate in Europe, and called on the SNP to make this a priority.
‘National shame for Scotland’
With an 11% rise in drugs deaths last year, Mr Alexander said this led to “not just personal devastating outcomes for the families affected”, but was also a “national shame for Scotland”.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Breakfast programme, the Labour MP declared: “If you push me to say what should be the priority of the Scottish Government, honestly tackling the crisis on Scotland’s streets seems to be very high up on that list.”
While Holyrood last week backed a motion from the First Minister declaring that Scotland as a nation had the right to decide its own future, Mr Alexander dismissed this, accusing Mr Swinney of “trying to use the Scottish Parliament to manage the politics of the SNP”.
Referendum conditions ‘don’t apply today’
The Scottish Secretary added: “The biggest and most important story last week in Scotland wasn’t the vote in Scotland’s Parliament, it was the drug deaths in Scotland’s streets.”
While Mr Alexander said “as Scots we’ve always had the right to decide our own future”, he insisted the conditions that led to the 2014 referendum on independence had not been repeated. In the run-up to the referendum, he said “there was a consensus both in the Scottish Parliament and in the UK Parliament” for the vote to take place.
Mr Alexander continued: “There was a complete consensus across the Scottish political parties, there was a consensus across Scottish civic life. Those conditions frankly don’t apply today.”
He added: “John Swinney, the First Minister who is now arguing that there is an absolute right for Scotland to suddenly have a referendum and be independent set the bar himself back in May, when he said the bar was a majority of SNP MSPs in the Scottish Parliament. He set the bar and he failed to cross it.”
However, he added: “The SNP are back on the hamster wheel of political management as they try and convince their own supporters, to lead them up the hill and back down again.”
Open to devolution talks
While the Scottish Secretary dismissed any calls for an independence vote at present, he said the UK Government was prepared to talk to SNP ministers about “what comes next for devolution in Scotland”.
Mr Alexander said: “Is there a willingness on the part of myself as Scottish Secretary, Andy Burnham as Prime Minister, Number 10 North to work collaboratively and closely with the Scottish Government and with our friends and colleagues in Scottish local government to figure out what comes next for devolution in Scotland? 100%. My door is open. We’re ready, willing and able to have those conversations.”
