“If that’s not an anti-Scottish move by a Labour Government, I don’t know what is.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar asked Mr Swinney if he, as First Minister, would “ignore a national security briefing that says there’s a national security challenge coming from investment from China”.
“Are you seriously saying that that’s what you would do as First Minister?” he asked.
“You explain to me, why is investment allowed in a nuclear power station, and it’s not permitted in Scotland? That is unjust for Scotland,” the SNP leader replied.
Speaking to journalists after the debate, Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander said the First Minister had traded “in the basest of politics, of hostility towards our friends and neighbours in the United Kingdom this evening”.
“The government has recognised this as a dangerous and challenging world. And instead, we had an answer from John Swinney that seemed to suggest that politics was the motivation behind national security when the defence of the realm was the first responsibility of the UK Government.”
SNP campaign director Angus Robertson pushed back against the Labour minister’s answer.
“I’m happy to furnish you with a list of consents that have been given by the UK Government for Chinese investments, including in very sensitive areas like nuclear power.
“And apparently that was all fine and dandy, and were able to be given the green light. Yet, when we had a one and a half billion pound renewables investment programme in the stocks and ready to go, the UK Government blocked it.”
“I do not believe for a nanosecond that if this project were to be happening in the rest of the United Kingdom it would have been blocked in the same way,” he added.
On independence, the six men on the panel were asked what would constitute a legitimate mandate for a second independence referendum.
Scottish Green co-leader Ross Greer said a mandate for any policy at an election would be those parties proposing that policy winning a majority in the parliament.
“That should be a democratic mandate. The Greens are standing at this election on a vision of an independent Scotland back in the European Union. So if the Greens plus the SNP equals a majority by any normal democratic standard, that would be a mandate”.
He pointed to comments by Labour’s Wes Streeting who told LBC on Sunday that the UK Government was “not going to introduce chaos into the UK by having an independence referendum”.
“I think it is profoundly anti-democratic for Westminster politicians to tell people in Scotland what we can and what we cannot have,” he said.
Mr Sarwar said: “We stood on a Scottish Labour manifesto two years ago that said that there would not be an independence referendum in the next five years. We won 37 Scottish Labour MPs.”
“John Swinney, the SNP won nine. What I’m saying is, are we just going to have politicians arguing with each other for the next five years, or are we going to get on and fix some of the problems?”
During the debate, the six party leaders were blasted by a mental health nurse, who urged the politicians to “start engaging a bit more with people” working in the NHS.
Asked what her message to politicians was, she replied: “can you actually maybe start engaging a bit more with people that know what we’re doing in hospitals, rather than just presuming”.
“When I became First Minister, I pledged to get long waits down, and that’s exactly what is happening,” the SNP leader said.
When it was pointed out that the Scottish Government had missed the target for year long waits for nine months in a row, he said he was focused on making sure that “we reduce those numbers so that people get treatment earlier and quicker”.
Mr Sarwar told the First Minister the number of people waiting for more than two years in Scotland was 1000, while in England it was 300.
“You’ve been in power for 20 years. Take some responsibility,” he added.
“Well, this is John Swinney all over,” said Russell Findlay. “If you can’t blame Westminster, he blames covid”.
On immigration, Lord Offord said he was in favour of “controlled immigration, legal immigration, of people who want to come here, make a contribution, put in more than take out.
“What I’m not in favour of is people coming here for the benefit of public services and jumping the queue to the detriment of local people in our own communities”.
Mr Greer described the peer as “an absolute chancer”.
At the start of the campaign, Mr Swinney had described Lord Offord as being unfit to be involved in Scottish politics. Asked if he still believed that, he said he did.
“I think Malcolm Offord’s first contribution to this election campaign was an absolutely inflammatory billboard which was about immigration. And I disassociate myself entirely from that.”