‘No risk’ to Black Watch

THE future of Scotland’s historic Black Watch regiment has been secured following the latest defence review.

Boris Johnson yesterday dismissed recent speculation by pledging there is ‘no threat’ to the Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, based at Fort George, near Inverness. He also warned the scale of defence investments in Scotland would be under threat if the SNP succeeded with its independence bid.

UK ministers also said they would maintain a ‘minimum credible’ nuclear deterrent at Faslane on the Clyde, despite lifting the cap on the number of Trident nuclear warheads that can be stockpiled.

Responding to SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford’s claim that promises made about the Armed Forces in Scotland had been broken, Mr Johnson said: ‘There will be further investments in Lossiemouth and there is no threat, for instance, to the Black Watch.’

He said the Government would continue to invest in international development and shipbuilding, which both provide jobs in Scotland.

He added: ‘The only thing that endangers those investments, working together as one UK, working with all the fantastic people in the armed services in Scotland, is the reckless referendum which his party insists on calling in the most inapposite time possible for this country.’

The document published yesterday commits to launching British satellites from Scotland ‘by 2022’. It also sets out how the UK will build a stockpile of ‘no more than 260 nuclear warheads’, as a plan to reduce this to 180 by the mid 2020s is ‘no longer possible’.

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: ‘The UK Government’s plans to expand the stockpile of nuclear weapons are utterly unacceptable to the Scottish Government. Nuclear weapons are morally, strategically and economically wrong.’