Greens ‘are out of their minds’ to call for Scotland to quit Nato

PRIME Minister Boris Johnson has condemned Scottish Government Ministers who have said they would pull the country out of Nato, stating they ‘must be out of their minds’.

The PM singled out Scottish Green Party MSPs drafted into the coalition government. The Greens have stated their wish for Scottish independence and, in the event of this, that a Nato exit would follow.

Speaking exclusively to The Scottish Mail on Sunday as he attended the Scottish Conservative conference in Aberdeen on Friday, Mr Johnson lambasted the idea, and also attacked any notion that Britain’s Trident nuclear

‘Seldom has Nato been more crucial’

deterrent should be scrapped, a policy which both the SNP and Greens have vowed to pursue.

Patrick Harvie, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, said last year: ‘With independence, Scotland can play a leading role in nuclear disarmament by signing up to the nuclear weapons ban and leaving Nato.’

But the Prime Minister said of the Greens’ Nato exit wish: ‘I think they must be out of their minds.

‘They should try talking to colleagues from the Baltic countries, the Nordic countries, the Balkans and across all of Nato’s eastern frontier. Seldom in the last 70 years has Nato’s role been more crucial.’

Mr Johnson also spoke out strongly in favour of retaining the UK’s nuclear deterrent, saying: ‘Trident makes sure that this country and our allies through Nato are not vulnerable to nuclear blackmail.’