FORMER defence secretary Ben Wallace has branded the SNP and Greens “wee pretendy foreign secretaries” after Israeli flights were barred from using Prestwick Airport.
The Tory MP – who served as defence secretary from 2019 to 2023 – lashed out at the Scottish Government after we revealed the airport would no longer do business with the Israeli Air Force (IAF).
Speaking to The Times, Wallace (below) said: “Haven’t the SNP and the Scottish Greens got other things to do than behave like wee pretendy foreign secretaries?”
It comes in the wake of a major row over an Israeli plane stopping at the airport on its way back from an American airbase in Delaware in November.
Prestwick has come in for criticism in the past after allegedly being used to support so-called rendition flights, which saw terror suspects taken to secret detention sites and tortured during the “War on Terror”.
The Scottish Greens earlier this week claimed victory in their campaign to bar the Israeli military from the state-owned airport – but called for all IAF planes to be banned from British airspace.
Ross Greer, the party’s external affairs spokesperson said: “It was utterly wrong for Prestwick Airport to be used in the first place. Given the US airbase it came from, it is extremely likely that the Israeli aircraft which landed there was loaded with more of the weapons being used to bomb Palestinian schools, hospitals and homes.
READ MORE: Prestwick Airport 'cuts off Israeli Air Force access' after backlash
“I’m glad that, following pressure from the Scottish Greens and other ceasefire campaigners, Israel can no longer use Scotland’s publicly-owned airport. But powers over all airports and airspace lie with the UK Government. They must follow Prestwick’s lead in taking action.
“If the UK Government has even the slightest concern for the rights and lives of people in Gaza, it will ban Israeli forces from using UK airspace entirely.”
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