Salmond bites back after comparison to US president’s ‘great deals’

A former Scottish Secretary has likened Alex Salmond’s nationalism to the isolationist rhetoric spouted by Donald Trump and Nigel Farage.

MP Alistair Carmichael said the SNP’s drive for independence is an affront to his party’s liberal values.

He said he could not see a difference between the Nationalists’ “divisive and exclusive” politics and the US President’s “America First” mantra or the former Ukip leader’s plea to “take back control”.

Mr Salmond dismissed it as one of the former Scotland Office chief’s “pathetic outbursts”.

Mr Carmichael said: “The rise of nationalism, wherever it is found, challenges our liberal values. Let us be quite clear about this. The answer to nationalism is never more nationalism.

“Dress it up any way you like but nationalism is still nationalism.

“Alex Salmond will tell you that all he wants is for decisions about Scotland to be made in Scotland.

“How is that different at its heart from Nigel Farage wanting to take back control? Or even Donald Trump wanting to do deals – great deals – that put America first?

“Nationalists will talk about values but ascribe them to a particular country or people.”

Mr Carmichael, who represents Orkney and Shetland at Westminster, said his party are the “only force in Scottish politics that occupies the same ground as the majority of our fellow Scots” – to stay part of the UK and for the UK to remain in the EU.

Mr Carmichael accused the SNP of being “just as ambivalent about our position in Europe” as the Tories.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been warning another independence referendum is “highly likely” since the Leave vote.

Mr Carmichael said: “If the SNP really wanted to be a voice for the 62% of Scots who voted Remain last June, then they would join us in demanding that the people of Britain be given the last word on the deal that Theresa May does with the rest of Europe.”

The Liberal Democrats want the public to be able to “sign off” the final Brexit deal secured by Theresa May in a referendum.

They say that must happen because the Leave campaign did not spell out the form that Brexit would take.

Mr Salmond did not take kindly to being compared with Mr Farage and Mr Trump.

“When Alistair Carmichael insults the SNP he insults the huge number of Scots who vote SNP,” he said. “His behaviour at the last election and attempted smearing of Nicola Sturgeon shows the political depths to which he stoops.

“The latest of his pathetic outbursts shows that he has learned nothing from that scandal.”