SNP accused of hypocrisy for funding Glasgow Prestwick airport which has links to Trump

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A publicly owned Scottish airport is being used by the US military to launch frontline operations and is striking deals with Donald Trump’s golf resort in an effort to stem its heavy financial losses.



An investigation by the Guardian has revealed Glasgow Prestwick airport is a base for live missions by the US Air Force, while its executives have highlighted its close relations with President Trump’s nearby resort at Turnberry to promote its bid to become a spaceport backed by the US government.

Scottish opposition politicians accused the ruling Scottish National party of “breathtaking hypocrisy” over its attitude to the Trump administration and asked whether the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, had misled MSPs on the matter.

The coastal airport, 32 miles south of Glasgow, was bought for £1 by the Scottish government in November 2013, when Alex Salmond was first minister, to save it from closure. Between then and April 2017 the airport lost £26.5m as 500,000 civilian passengers a year went to rival airports.

It is eligible for another £7.7m in government loans this year to cover its continuing losses, which would take its total debts to the taxpayer to nearly £48m, plus interest. That is more than double the £21m ministers originally said would be needed to help return the airport to profit.

In an effort to stem its losses, Prestwick executives have attended military fairs across the US to pursue contracts to service cargo flights, troop transports and air-to-air refueling operations for the US Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, National Guard and the US Defense Logistics Agency.

Official memos seen by the Guardian show Prestwick has won these contracts with the knowledge of Scottish government ministers, including Keith Brown, the economy secretary, both while Trump was the Republican presidential candidate and since he became president.

Profile Glasgow Prestwick airport's links to Trump Turnberry resort Show Hide Prestwick airport has touted its close links with Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort as part of its campaign to become a US-backed spaceport and an emergency landing site for Nasa’s new space shuttle. The publicly owned airport, 30 miles from Trump Turnberry in Ayrshire, believes it is a frontrunner to become the UK’s first spaceport and has invested significant resources in building close ties in the US. In July 2015, its 'spaceport project board' said it was important to emphasise the strengths of Prestwick, such as Trump’s £200m investment plans for Turnberry, and it predicted the Trump Organization would help promote Prestwick as a spaceport. In 2016, a briefing note for Scottish government officials said the “world famous” Trump resort added to the area’s “significant appeal”. US space policy is overseen by the vice-president, Mike Pence, after Trump reinstated the National Space Council, linking policy decisions affecting Prestwick directly to the White House. Scottish government documents show Prestwick has been earmarked as the “abort landing site” for Dream Chaser, a remotely operated space shuttle being built by the Sierra Nevada Corporation. Prestwick signed a deal in December 2016 with a Nasa spaceport in Houston. It already supplies recuperation facilities for Nasa astronauts returning to the US from Kazakhstan after International Space Station trips. Opposition parties say the pitch for Nasa business raises serious questions about the risk of a conflict of interest for the Scottish government and the Trump administration. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/Murdo MacLeod

Scottish government officials sought to withhold details of many of the deals, heavily censoring documents it released under freedom of information legislation. But the USAF confirmed Prestwick was used to support frontline US military operations.

Maj Richard Komurek, a USAF spokesman for Europe and Africa, said: “Glasgow Prestwick airport is one of a variety of airfields within Europe that can be used to support a full range of USAF operations.

“The forward-basing of US aircraft in Europe enhances our ability to conduct rapid global mobility, global strike operations and training to maintain combat-ready forces that are ready to respond to contingencies and support allies and partners.”

The documents reveal that USAF Stratotanker air-to-air refueling aircraft operated several sorties from Prestwick while based there for three weeks in May 2017. That month, the USAF also approved “active duty missions” from Prestwick for Hercules C130 cargo planes for its air mobility command, which describes the C130 as “the prime transport for airdropping troops and equipment into hostile areas”.

Brown was told a visit by US diplomats to Prestwick to prepare for Trump’s arrival to open the Turnberry resort in June 2016 led to new contacts with the USAF’s European chief of defense and the US air attache to the UK. In October 2016, Prestwick signed a three-year basing and fuel supply deal with the Defense Logistics Agency, helping it almost double its income from fuel sales to £3m last year.



Brown was told those contacts also led to the USAF earmarking Prestwick to take a greater share of its flights after it leaves Mildenhall airbase in Suffolk, its largest base in the UK, in 2024.

An extract from Scottish government and Prestwick airport documents seen by the Guardian. Photograph: Transport Scotland

The Scottish government insisted its ministers played no part in Prestwick’s business decisions, but opposition parties said ministers should make an urgent statement at Holyrood on what they know about Prestwick’s dealings with the US military, and the prospects of it ever making a profit.



Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s economy spokeswoman, said: “In public, SNP MPs and MSPs, including Alex Salmond, fall over themselves to tell us how awful Donald Trump is – and frequently stand up to condemn American-led military operations.

“Yet in private the SNP government is striking deals with Trump’s generals to try to desperately prop up Prestwick airport. It is such breathtaking hypocrisy.”

The Scottish government said approving military flights was a matter for aviation authorities controlled by the UK government, and that Prestwick had been used by Nato air forces for decades.

Patrick Harvie, the Scottish Green co-leader, said Holyrood should be told whether Prestwick had made money from supporting US bombing raids, including in Syria. “This is all deeply concerning,” Harvie said. “A failing business is being propped up by a Scottish cabinet minister for no clear public benefit, and the moral price being paid is simply unacceptable.”



Sturgeon said in February 2016 that the Scottish government “has had no discussions on the relationship between the airport and the Trump Organization” and insisted it operated at arm’s length from the government.



However, one censored government memo revealed Transport Scotland officials lobbied ministers to meet Trump Organization staff, USAF commanders, and Federal Aviation Administration officials, to promote Prestwick’s business interests on an official tour of the US in April 2015 led by Brown.



Pressed to confirm the memo’s accuracy, a Scottish government spokesman admitted officials had been a conduit for “tentative” proposals from Prestwick but said none of the suggested meetings took place.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An extract from Scottish government and Prestwick airport documents seen by the Guardian. Photograph: Transport Scotland

Harvie said this raised serious questions for Sturgeon, who in December 2015 had stripped Trump of his honorary role as a “global Scot” after his outbursts about Mexicans and Muslims.



“It’s possible that she was misled by civil servants, or by her ministerial colleagues. But the outcome is unacceptable either way, and the Scottish government must now publish all related documents in full,” he said.



The Turnberry resort has been given a central role in Prestwick’s attempts to promote Ayrshire as a tourist destination and to win substantial investment by US space industry firms working for Nasa.

The documents seen by the Guardian show Prestwick struck deals with Trump Turnberry to supply cut-price rooms for select passengers and crew. According to the Sunday Post newspaper, Prestwick also offered free rounds of golf at Turnberry to visiting US military and civilian air crews. Prestwick said it had special arrangements with other hotels in Ayrshire.

The Scottish government insisted its ministers had not sanctioned Prestwick’s business decisions nor had they had any discussions or contact with US military commanders.

“Ministers have no role in the operation of contractual agreements made by Glasgow Prestwick airport, which operates on an entirely commercial basis in line with European state aid rules,” a spokesman said.

“The funding given to the airport supports vital employment, and if we had not stepped in, the closure of the airport would have dealt a heavy blow to the local and national economies. Handling private and military flights has always been a part of Glasgow Prestwick airport’s business.”



Asked about potential conflicts of interest for the USAF using an airport closely associated with the US president’s business interests, Capt Jhanelle Haag, a USAF spokeswoman, said Prestwick was chosen solely for military reasons.

“The selection and use of any airfield by the Department of Defense is guided strictly by that airfield’s ability to support combined (US, UK, and Nato) air operations in support of our shared security objectives,” she said.