06/06/2017 Election 2017

Give me your general message On Thursday we have an opportunity to

make a positive statement about the kind of country we want Scotland to

be. As this campaign's progressed, people have really seen what five

more years of the Tories would mean. It would be deeper cuts to Public

Services, it would be damaging for jobs and it would push more people

into poverty. The reality is that in Scotland, the only way to stop the

Tories, the only way to stop Theresa May getting a bigger majority is to

vote SNP. A vote for Labour or the Liberals in Scotland simply risks

splitting the anti-Tory vote and letting a Tory MP in the back door.

If you want to vote for greater investment in Public Services and

policies that lift people out of poverty, vote SNP and make sure we

have strong voices in Westminster. Can I ask you about the events in

London over the weekend and the implications for everybody's

security? Theresa May came out in Downing Street saying enough is

enough. Does that actually -- what does that actually mean to you? She

has to outline what she thinks it means. Nobody can escape the fact

that Theresa May's been Home Secretary for the past number of

years before she was Prime Minister. She presided over significant cuts

in policing in England and there is a lot of concern about that. Now,

security is one of the most important priorities for any

Government in Scotland where we are not immune at all from the threats,

and we have invested to maintain police numbers and we have seen over

times increases in the numbers of trained armed officers we have got.

There must be a determination across all of the parties to challenge

robustly extremism in all of its forms. As we do that, we have dot to

make sure we pull people together, not divide or scapegoat any

particular community. We have to make sure as well we don't undermine

the freedoms and civil liberties of who we are. That is a difficult

balance. How will the SNP tread the fine line between clamping down on

extremism but also not invading people's privacy too much? Civil

liberties are part of the values we have as a society. If we allow them

to be undermined, the terrorists win and we don't want that to happen. Of

course, it's important that we have police on our streets and it's

important that at times we have higher police presences, armed

officers, but we must make sure we protect the liberties that we all

cherish. It's also really important we don't scapegoat a particular

community. I'm talking specifically about the Muslim community.

Terrorists that carry out horrific acts in the name of Islam are not

acting on behalf of that faith, they are perverting the teachings of that

faith. I think it's really important to pull people together to isolate

and drive extremism out. That's going to be all the more important

in the weeks and months ahead. By the time we get to the point of

having more armed officers on the street, isn't that too late?

Shouldn't we be doing more earlier on? I know you said you don't want

to scapegoat a particular community but the people doing the terrorist

acts aren't claiming their acts in the name of God? They are claiming

it but I don't think that because somebody claims something is in the

name of any particular faith that that should just be accepted. I know

I represent a constituency in Glasgow with a very big Muslim

population. Muslims in this country are as appalled as anybody else is

when terrorist acts like this happen. The reality is, if you are a

Muslim in this country, you are far more likely to be the victim of a

terrorist attack than the perpetrator. Of course it's not just

about police on the streets, it's about tackling extremism at source

and we work very hard in Scotland with different faiths to make sure

we are doing that. My point is, we are going to be more successful in

doing that if we work in partnership with communities, not if we suggest

that a particular community is the enemy. These are not easy issue,

these are difficult challenges, all governments though have a

responsibility to make sure they are doing everything possible to keep

the population safe. That does sometimes require increased police

presence on the streets, that's why in Scotland, unlike in the rest of

the UK, we have maintained police numbers and increased policing

numbers. The Government's putting together a report into who was

funding extremist ideaology in the UK. It hasn't finished yet but there

are rumours that it hasn't been published yet because it could be

embarrassing. What is your take on that? That should be published.

David Cameron gave an undertaking to look at that, look at the picture of

funding for looking at that. I have a clear idea of the countries

providing that funding. Theresa May said yesterday the fight against

terrorism will sometimes involve difficult discussions and that's

true at home but it's also going to be true overseas as well. The idea

the Government can commission a report like this and think it can

keep it hidden is unacceptable. I think she's got it wrong over the

police cuts. I also think she's got it wrong over border guard cuts as

well and indeed cuts to the Prison Service. I'm not sure that these

comments have much legitimacy coming from someone like Jeremy Corbyn,

someone who's called Hamas and Hezbollah as friends. I mean, to

attack Theresa May on the issue of terrorism and it really is a weak

point for Jeremy