THE First Minister hit out at Tory leadership hopefuls during yesterday’s First Minister’s Questions, saying Scotland needs to “get out of a position ... where Tory politicians think that what we can do is a matter of what they allow us to do”.
“Instead,” added Nicola Sturgeon, “what we do in Scotland should be a matter of the choice of the people of our country.”
Sturgeon’s message came after three hopefuls to become the next prime minister lined up to tell Scotland that they would be denied the right to have an independence referendum should they become prime minister.
Responding to a question from SNP MSP and depute leader of the party Keith Brown on mitigating Tory austerity, Sturgeon said: “Obviously, if we did not have Tory austerity, we would not have the levels of poverty that we do and we would not have the cuts to our budget that are making it harder to deal with those issues.
“We also have a Conservative Party in the Scottish Parliament that is bereft of policies but has managed to propose one policy in recent years: to give tax cuts to the richest.
“The lesson in the medium to longer term is that we should get out of a position in Scotland where Tory politicians think that what we can do is a matter of what they allow us to do.
“Instead, what we do in Scotland should be a matter of the choice of the people of our country.”
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who was on a whistlestop tour of Scotland’s Tory constituencies yesterday, said that neither he nor any of his rivals would agree to a Section 30 order which would transfer powers and ensure indyref2 is legally watertight.
Hancock told The Telegraph: “I say, ‘No way Nicola’. I’m against second referendums because we live in a democracy and we follow the results of the first. When people are given a vote, politicians should listen.
“The SNP government would do better to focus on the powers that it does have, that it isn’t using well enough. We all said before the Scottish referendum that this would settle the issue for a generation, and it has.”
Hancock also said that Ruth Davidson was “the only person who can stand up to Nicola Sturgeon”.
He continued: “She and my Scottish colleagues had such success in 2017 [at the General Election] – we need to deliver Brexit and then we need to get on to all the important things, like safeguarding the Union, making sure the Union is ever- present in every deed in the Westminster government.”
Hancock’s remarks came after his rivals Sajid Javid and Esther McVey both said they would not “allow” another vote. Javid tweeted: “If I become PM, I won’t allow a second Scottish independence referendum.
“People stated views clearly in 2014, so there should be no second vote. Nicola Sturgeon should spend more time improving public services in Scotland, and less time grandstanding.”
McVey said: “I won’t allow another referendum on Scottish independence if I become prime minister of the United Kingdom. Voters were told it was a once-in-a-generation vote and therefore as far as I’m concerned it was.”
Rory Stewart, who in 2014 launched the Hands Across The Border project to build a cairn as “a testament to the Union”, tweeted that the candidates jockeying for position should remember that: “In everything we do and everything we say in this leadership race ... the key is to unify the country and not divide the United Kingdom.”
Hancock has the support of two Scottish Tory MPs, East Renfrewshire’s Paul Masterton, and West
Aberdeenshire’s Andrew Bowie, while Michael Gove has the backing of Luke Graham, David Duguid, and Stephen Kerr. John Lamont is backing Jeremy Hunt.
In what might be a blow to Boris Johnson, the Aberdeen South MP Ross Thomson (above) has not yet decided who he wants to see in Number 10.
It had been assumed that the north-east Brexiteer would support Johnson.
Thomson has been such an enthusiastic supporter of Johnson that the normally reliable Conservative Home website have had him listed as one of the former foreign secretary’s supporters for days. But yesterday he took to Twitter to set the record straight.
“To be clear, as I keep getting asked, I have not declared for any leadership candidate,” Thomson tweeted. “I have spoken to most candidates but I have more to meet next week. Then I’ll make a decision based on what they will do to deliver for Scotland, what their plan is to deliver Brexit.”
Johnson was, however, yesterday endorsed by Donald Trump.
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