Use new defence programme to boost support for Ukraine, Swinney urged
Former SNP MP Stewart McDonald said there was a chance to do something ‘genuinely quite innovative’
John Swinney should use his new industrial defence programme to make Scotland a “key player” in supporting Ukraine, a former SNP MP has said.
Stewart McDonald, his party’s former defence spokesman in Westminster, said there was a chance to do something “genuinely quite innovative”.
The First Minister’s programme for government includes plans to “establish a responsible defence industrial growth programme to maximise the economic benefits to Scotland from increased UK and allied defence spending”.
The pledge is part of a recent shift within the SNP over defence issues.
Last year, Mr Swinney reversed the party’s long-standing ban on public funding for munitions. However, he paused new awards of public money to arms companies supplying Israel. The SNP has also welcomed increased UK defence spending.
Stephen Flynn, the Economy Secretary, and Stephen Gethins, the external affairs minister, are both said to have been pushing within Cabinet for more to be done to maximise the benefits to Scotland’s defence sector of extra spending.
Speaking to The Scotsman, Mr McDonald, who lost his Glasgow South seat in 2024, said there had previously been a "nervousness" within the SNP about engaging with the defence sector, while the government was “actively hostile” under Nicola Sturgeon.
"Tanks and bombs and things that go bang aren't the SNP's natural territory, but this is 2026 and we'd all much rather we lived in more peaceful times but we're going to have to get ahead of this as a party and as a government,” he said.
"And to be fair to the First Minister, he clearly understands that, if you go back to all the things he's said about defence, about Ukraine, about national security."
Mr McDonald said the government should look to have a “particular strand” of the new programme focused on Ukraine.
"Whatever the government decides to do with this programme, have a specific bit that is about supporting Ukraine,” he said.
"Whether that's about driving R&D [research and development] on drones, whether that's about partnering with the Ukrainian defence sector, maybe allowing some of their people to come over here and do placements at our universities, teaching at our universities or vice versa.
"I think there's a really good opportunity there for the Scottish government, although it's not a front-seat actor in this great European threat environment - but it has the opportunity to be a really key player.
"And I think if it looks to partner with industry, colleges, universities here at home, alongside equivalent counterparts in Ukraine, it could do something genuinely quite innovative, both for the Scottish sector but actually showing you can be a good ally to Ukraine and Ukraine's defence right now."
He said the Scottish government had already done good work in relation to Ukraine, "but it could potentially open up a whole new strand of opportunity here".
Elsewhere, Mr McDonald suggested there should be a rethink over the approach to arms companies supplying Israel.
"I understand why they've got the policy,” he said. “I understand people in Scotland care about what's happening in the Middle East, I get that, and the government wants to be responsive to public mood, I understand that as well.
"But I'm just not sure that they are able to achieve what I assume they think they're setting out to achieve. I think the policy, if I'm being honest - it basically doesn't understand how global defence supply chains work."
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The Scottish government is committed to establish a responsible defence industrial growth programme, reflecting both the geopolitical threats we face and the economic opportunity for Scotland.”
On Israel, they added: “In September 2025, the Scottish government announced a comprehensive package of economic and humanitarian measures in response to the genocide in Gaza. This included a pause on new awards of public money to defence companies whose products or services are provided to countries where there is plausible evidence of genocide being committed by that country. This measure was implemented immediately and remains in effect."
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