MSPs are being urged to hold an emergency debate on Russia in the wake of the nerve agent attack in Russia.
The Scottish LibDems will today ask the weekly meeting of party business managers, the Scottish Parliamentary Bureau, to change the agenda on Thursday to discuss the issue.
They said Holyrood must have a chance to “debate and solidify its approach to Russia”.
Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie said the Novichok attack that has left former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia critically ill in hospital was “horrifying and brazen" and could have endangered hundreds of civilian lives.
He said: “The poisoning has clear implications for resilience planning of emergency services in Scotland, as there’s nothing to stop the next assassination attempt taking place North of the border.
“The UK Government has sought the support of governments around the world, who are united in their condemnation of Putin’s actions.
"The Scottish Parliament must similarly be given the opportunity to debate and solidify its approach to Russia, its agents and the tools it is deploying to destabilise our democracy.
“This issue becomes ever more urgent by the day. As the Foreign Secretary reports Russia is stockpiling more nerve agent, this would allow Parliament to reassure the public their concerns are being taken seriously.”
The Scottish Greens said they would welcome a debate or ministerial statement in the coming weeks, and that the timing should be discussed at the bureau.
Labour, the Tories and SNP are expected to state their positions at this morning's meeting.
The Salisbury attack came up at last week's First Minister Questions, but the exchange between Nicola Sturgeon and Ruth Davidson focused on the Kremlin TV channel RT and Russian oligarchs in the UK donating to the Conservatives.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel