Malcolm Offord accuses John Swinney of attending ‘pretendy summit’ instead of focusing on people’s priorities

Malcolm Offord has accused the first minister of using taxpayer cash to attend a “pretendy wee summit” instead of focusing on the priorities of the people of Scotland.

The Reform Scotland leader raised John Swinney’s attendance in Cardiff earlier this week during First Minister’s Questions.

He said the focus on independence was “delusional” and the meeting was “nothing but distraction and division”.

But the first minister said his government has made “significant progress” on the priorities he set out when entering office, before arguing that independence would make achieving his goals easier.

Swinney met with his Welsh and Northern Irish counterparts on Monday, where the trio signed a memorandum of understanding which declared “Westminster’s time is coming to an end”.

It was co-signed by Welsh FM Rhun ap Iorwerth, the leader of Plaid Cymru, and Northern Ireland’s FM Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Fein.

But Offord said the meeting did nothing to further the stated aims of Swinney on tackling child poverty, growing the economy, fixing the NHS or reforming public services.

He said: “Why did he suddenly direct to Cardiff for a taxpayer-funded wee pretendy summit? Why’s he given up on delivering unity, instead choosing distraction and division? And which of those four priorities were advanced by his wee day trip to Wales?”

The MSP went on the argue support for the SNP was at its lowest since 2014 at the most recent election and called on the Scottish Government to “focus on the day job”.

Swinney said the recent Programme for Government covered all the areas named and went on to highlight that his party won the recent election with the biggest gap in seat numbers between first and second place since devolution.

He added: “So, I don’t think I need any lectures from a losing force like Malcolm Offord in leading Reform.”

Regarding his priorities, he said: “We’re making significant progress in advancing that agenda. That may explain party why I won the election on 7 May… But also, the people of Scotland heard from me during the election the importance of self-determination for the people of Scotland, of Scotland being an independence country, and that option for Scotland, that opportunity, would help up to achieve our objectives even more.”

Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay also raised the Cardiff summit, accusing the SNP of never having accepted the outcome of the 2014 referendum.

He also accused the party of cosying up to Sinn Fein to “break up the country”, despite the Irish nationalist part never having denounced the terrorism of the IRA.

Swinney insisted he would deliver an independence referendum within this parliamentary term, before pivoting to suggest there could be a “merger” between the Tories and Reform.