Oil tycoon Sir Ian slams indy obsession
ONE of Scotland’s leading businessmen has launched a strongly-worded attack on t he SNP Government’s ‘adversarial and negative’ approach, which he said has ‘held back’ Scotland.
Billionaire oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood condemned ministers for pursuing their ‘one objective’ of independence rather than looking after the Scottish people.
He urged the SNP Government to work with the UK Government to promote Scotland’s interests and accept the result of the independence referendum.
Sir Ian, former chief executive and chairman of Wood Group, was speaking on BBC’s Question Time.
He said: ‘We had a referendum five years ago. It’s an incredibly important question and we should absolutely not be addressing it again. What’s gone completely wrong in the past two or three years is that we’ve got a Scottish Government who generally are adversarial and negative about a whole range of things that might happen with the UK and Scotland working together.
‘And that’s what we should have. We’ve a devolved government who are focused on independence.
‘What we need is a devolved government who will work with the UK government.’
Sir Ian also condemned the SNP’s approach during the coronavirus pandemic, saying care homes were the ‘ biggest tragedy’ of the first wave and that the reopening of universities rather than online learning was a ‘bad decision’.
Responding to his comments, Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said: ‘Well I fundamentally disagree with that, having had an answer where I talked about the extension of the furlough scheme, and welcoming it when it was announced, clearly I do have a very vested interest in ensuring the UK Government delivers for Scotland.’
She claimed the Tories ‘just don’t care about Scotland’ and said ‘that is why we are seeing an increase in the polls’ for independence.
Scottish Conservative l eader Douglas Ross said: ‘Sir Ian Wood is one of the country’s most respected business figures and his assessment of this relentlessly negative SNP government is damning.
‘The SNP would rather pick fights and obsess about independence than work together for the benefit of the people of Scotland.’
Labour MP Seema Malhotra, the Shadow Employment Minister, said there needs to be a focus on health, jobs, the economy and education.
She said: ‘I just feel that the last thing people are going to want is another divisive referendum when there are such important issues to focus on.
‘People in my constituency, myself, many others across the United Kingdom, have got friends and family in Scotland and we remember how divisive the last referendum was, then we saw the Brexit referendum with all the division that brought. I think people want a period of healing, they want the country to be working together.’
‘Adversarial and negative’