ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now Tony Blair apparently could face a vote over whether he misled Parliament about the Iraq War. A number of MPs are expected to ask the Speaker to hold a vote on a motion to declare the former Prime Minister in contempt of the House of Commons.  Well I am joined now by one of them, Angus Robertson, the SNPs leader in Westminster, he is in Speyside and a very good morning to you Mr Robertson.  What would this actually mean, holding Tony Blair in contempt, and what’s the point of it?    

ANGUS ROBERTSON: Well all of your viewers will have seen the Sky News coverage of the Chilcot Report, the conclusions that he came to after years and years and years of inquiry and what’s absolutely clear to everybody is the massive gulf between what Tony Blair was saying in private to US President Bush, effectively signing up the UK to war in Iraq way in advance of Parliament being informed about that and different reasons being given to both.  Tony Blair saying now it was about regime change whereas then we were being told it was about weapons of mass destruction when there were none, so Parliament was misled and that’s very serious and I think it is important as parliamentarians that to protect the standing of Parliament and democracy we have to hold people to account who, whilst in their public office, have acted in a way which has misled Parliament and that is exactly what Tony Blair did.  So myself and other parliamentarians from across the House, from six different political parties – it is not a party political issue – across the House of Commons, are looking at the different ways in which we can do that and as you explained in your introduction, tabling a motion is a way of doing that and that is something we are looking at doing before the summer recess.

DM: But even if you get it passed, what does it mean?  Disqualifying him from public office that he doesn’t want to hold?

ANGUS ROBERTSON: Well that’s the scope that we need to look at to understand what we are able to do because of course this doesn’t mean that people can’t pursuit civil litigation or indeed criminal charges but it is not certain, given the status of international law especially what potentially successful routes one could go down with that so in Parliament we have to look at what opportunities we have which is why MPs from across political parties are looking at the precedents, are looking at what might happen, which may in effect send a strong signal that Parliament was misled, that it was unacceptable and that Tony Blair has been held to account but it is not the unique way in which he can be held to account because of course that could be pursued through the courts as well and we know that there are the families of service personnel who died in Iraq whose relatives were sent into this illegal war because of the actions of Tony Blair, who are actively contemplating civil litigation.  So it’s not one at the cost of another but in Parliament we need to look at what we can do and that is what’s happening in discussions behind the scenes before presenting a potential motion which of course would need to be given the green light by the Speaker which is why the preparation work is underway to try and make that happen.

DM: Now update us Mr Robertson if you will on the latest thinking in the SNP leadership about a second independence referendum concerning Brexit because we’ve got the latest haven’t we, and it is an underlining again of the attitude amongst governments that need to be negotiated with, the Spanish and the French President Hollande saying he won’t negotiate with part of the UK, i.e. Scotland, about the future, he negotiates with all the UK.  Does that push you closer to a second referendum?

ANGUS ROBERTSON: I think the most important thing is since the shock of the Brexit vote where people in Scotland voted more than 62% to remain in the EU but voters elsewhere voted to Leave, we are  looking at all options in Scotland to try and protect our position in Europe.  First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has embarked on a series of discussions in Brussels, she met with the President of the European Parliament, the President of the European Commission, other leading decision makers in Brussels and is now holding discussions in Scotland with the business community, last week with the consular corps that are based in Scotland so there is a process that is being gone through to try and understand what are our options to remain within the European Union.  Now it is pretty obvious that there is a route to being able to stay within the European Union and that’s as a member state, that’s what everybody else does.  We’re currently in and we want to remain in, we have absolutely no intention of leaving and harming business, harming our citizenship rights, discriminating against our neighbours who happen to be EU citizens and who play such a valuable role in our society and economy, we will do everything to try and protect our position and if that means we will have a second referendum in Scotland so that we are a sovereign state and able to remain within the EU, that is exactly what we will do.  However we need to go through a process of understanding how we can remain in the EU and if that is the only way at the end of the day, that is what we’ll do and I’m surprised you didn’t add to your list of the views of other countries the Vice Chancellor of Germany, Sigmar Gabriel who talked about Scotland being able to remain within the European Union, it’s just a question of the mechanics of how one would do that but of course you would need the express democratic wishes of the people of Scotland to do that and that is why the First Minister and the Scottish government has embarked on this process.

DM: Well I didn’t add that to the long list because we wanted to hear your long list, Mr Robertson and I think a last question that I’ll get in here, people are asking in Scotland and the rest of the UK saying there is a different question now compared to the first independence referendum about the currency because whatever mechanism Scotland finds to remain within the European Union, England and Wales and indeed Northern Ireland are out, you couldn’t possibly share the pound.  

ANGUS ROBERTSON: Well again there are a range of options on the table, there was a fiscal commission that the Scottish government set up before the 2014 referendum but you are right, things have moved on, very interesting intervention just in the last couple of days from Nicholas McPherson who was the Head of the Treasury who was extremely partisan in his opposition to independence in 2014, now saying that there are huge opportunities for Scotland including a Scottish pound, being able to retain that whilst being in the European Union so people who in 2014 didn’t see the advantages of Scotland being sovereign are now acknowledging that there are very significant opportunities and being able to safeguard our economic position within the EU.  So the position has changed fundamentally because in effect what happened in the Brexit vote is that voters in England declared independence from the rest of the United Kingdom because of course we here north of the border and indeed friends in Northern Ireland also voted to remain in the EU and in Scotland we have every intention of doing just that because we want to remain within the EU.

DM: Okay Mr Robertson, great talking to you, such a beautiful backdrop there.  Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader in Westminster.