IF Boris Johnson is named Prime Minister the SNP will immediately sound out the prospect of a motion of no confidence, the party’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford told the Sunday National yesterday.
Johnson’s “scorched earth” no-deal Brexit policy would have a “disastrous” impact on the Scottish economy, Blackford said.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday National, Blackford also revealed that he met with Johnson to discuss an issue which the former-Foreign Secretary had no idea was reserved and the direct responsibility of his own department.
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“One of the options is to test the appetite for a motion of no confidence,” Blackford said.
“Let’s be clear: This man is prepared to follow a scorched earth policy where he is prepared to deliver a no deal when all the evidence points to the disastrous outcome for the economy of Scotland, where we could lose up to 100,000 jobs.”
Regarding the Tory leadership hopeful’s decision not to take part in tonight’s Channel 4 debate, Blackford said that Boris’s move was “arrogant and contemptuous” but added that “everybody knows that this is for Boris to lose. He has a great deal of momentum among the MPs anyway and his advisors aren’t letting him out to play because they recognise that he is a liability”.
Blackford added: “I met with the Prime Minister and Boris some months ago to discuss the Scottish Limited Partnerships, where we were trying to get the Government to take action to crack down on the use of SLPs for money laundering and other illegal activity.
“When I met Boris at number 10, his first comment was to ask why the Scottish Government weren’t legislating for this.
“I had to tell him that we couldn’t because it was a reserved matter. The bill we were seeking to attach to this was in his department. He was completely ignorant that he had responsibility for it.”
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The Tory party, he said, were delusional to think that Johnson could “rescue them from Farage,” and added that their tactic to “try to out-Brexit Farage” would “not appeal to Scotland”.
The scale of damage that a no-deal Brexit could cause, Blackford said, could be “up to five times as damaging as the financial crisis”.
“We are still paying the price for the austerity the Tories brought in. They are threatening the livelihoods of people in Scotland again.”
Blackford told the Sunday National that the focus of the SNP would be to see the referendum bill passed through parliament, but appealed to party activists and the wider Yes movement to get out and spread the independence message.
“It also has to be done in the right spirit, in that we are discussing the values and the type of Scotland we want to have.
“We have to drive up support for independence and if we do the movement will be unstoppable.”
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