AN SNP MP has been praised for “laying bare the reality of Global Britain with precision” during an appearance on the BBC’s Politics Live.

Stephen Flynn, who represents Aberdeen South at Westminster, was appearing on the show alongside Tory MP Alicia Kearns, Mirror journalist Pippa Crerar, and author Tim Marshall.

Marshall, who has penned books such as “Prisoners of Geography”, was speaking about the UK’s place on the global stage in the wake of Brexit.

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Kearns, who also sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee at Westminster, had previously been asked what the Tories’ idea of a “Global Britain” actually means.

She said it was about “charting a future where we recognise that we need to be more strategic in terms of what are the interests of the UK”.

Kearns said the idea of a Global Britain is about protecting UK citizens at home and abroad and about “our prosperity, our interests, and our alliances”.

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She said the UK needed a “constellation of alliances” and listed examples such as Nato and Five Eyes.

Asked if he agreed, Flynn, 33, said that the Tories’ approach to foreign policy was one of the key reasons he and many other young people in Scotland desired independence.

The SNP MP said: “When I look at Britain’s foreign policy what I see is the Iraq war. What I see is the UK Government, providing weapons to the Saudis to bomb the people of Yemen.

“I see Brexit, I see the hostility towards the European Union that came with that, I see the dehumanisation of refugees, the demonisation of migrants. I see cutting international aid budgets, I see the chaos of the departure from Afghanistan.

“I see nuclear weapons off the coast of Scotland that should not be there. That’s the reality of ‘Global Britain’ and it’s quite frankly not something that I want to be part of.”

Flynn’s speech has been widely praised on social media, with his Westminster colleague Martin Docherty-Hughes saying he had laid “bare the reality of Global Britain with precision”.

The topic of Scottish independence was then explored in slightly more depth, with Marshall saying the idea of an independent Scotland removing the UK’s nuclear weapons from within its borders “keeps the MoD awake at night”.

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Asked if the prospect of Scottish independence kept her awake at night, Tory MP Kearns responded: “Keeping our country united is absolutely a priority for me, it matters fundamentally the bonds of friendship and family between Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales.”

She listed the vaccine roll-out, the army, and the furlough scheme as example of the Union working for Scotland before going on to claim: “People don’t want to be talking about independence at the moment. They want to be talking about working together as a unit, as one great nation altogether.”

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In response, Flynn (above) said: “The notion that people don’t want to talk about independence is, quite frankly, for the birds.

“There was a Scottish Parliament election in May of this year, which appears to have escaped Alicia’s notice, and the SNP recorded a record victory in that election.

“The people of Scotland have been quite clear that they want the democratic choice to choose their own future. That’s an important point, this is about democracy. The people of Scotland voted for parties who want to hold a second independence referendum and the people of Scotland should not be denied that right now or at any point in the future.”

“The people of Scotland also voted for a party that they wanted to run Holyrood”, The Mirror’s Pippa Crerar responded.

Crerar said that half of Scots did not want to revisit the indyref conversation, and that she doubted Nicola Sturgeon would want to hold one herself “despite all her promises” as the Unionists looked likely to win.

The BBC host added that the SNP wanted to hold a second vote only after the pandemic has passed “which could be years away”.

Flynn said he supported the Scottish Government’s announced timeframe of holding a referendum within 2023.

“It’s what people went to the polls in May and backed parties for - both the SNP and the Greens - we hold a significant majority in the Scottish Parliament in relation to that, and the democratic will of the people of Scotland must be listened to.

“All I would say to anyone who has a disagreement in relation to this point is if you don’t think that the people of Scotland are going to vote for independence what you should accept is the fact that they have the right to choose.

“If we don’t support that democratic act we are in seriously difficult waters on these islands.”