Rishi Sunak has been branded “puerile and pathetic” after he appeared to compare supporters of Scottish independence with “extremists” around the world.
The prime minister made the remarks in a speech on national security on Monday.
He said: “From gender activists trying to hijack children’s sex education to cancel culture, vocal and aggressive fringe groups are trying to impose their views on the rest of us.
“They’re trying to make it morally unacceptable to believe something different and undermine people’s confidence and pride in our own history and identity.
“Scottish nationalists are even trying to tear our United Kingdom apart.”
At prime minister’s questions today, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn condemned the PM.
He said: “On Monday the prime minister outlined what he considers to be extremist threats to our society, and in doing so he actively compared North Korea, Iran and Russia with those people in Scotland who believe in independence.
“So can I ask him to rise once to the standards befitting of his office and apologise for those puerile and pathetic remarks?”
The prime minister replied: “That’s not what I said, but I would say to the honourable gentleman that his party is indeed a threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom and I hate to remind him that is literally their entire purpose.”
He called on the SNP to “end the obsession with independence and put the needs of the Scottish people first”.
Flynn hit back: “What the prime minister did was not just equate by colleagues and I to despotic and dangerous despots across the world, he proactively compared almost half of the Scottish population with a war criminal like Vladimir Putin.”
He added: “We know that his sorry time in office is rapidly coming to a conclusion. Is this really how he wants to be remembered?”