BUTT OUT, BOJO
Labour hit out as PM accuses them of shady IndyRef2 deal with SNP
BORIS Johnson blundered into an independence row yesterday after the Tories accused Labour and the SNP of a “shady backroom deal” to bring about a new indyref poll.
Labour immediately dismissed claims made by Johnson at the last Prime Minister’s Questions of the parliament that a Corbyn government would agree to IndyRef2 in exchange for SNP support at Westminster.
Johnson claimed in the Commons that a Corbyn-led government would pave the way for Nicola Sturgeon’s demand for a 2020 referendum.
A Tory spokesman told reporters: “Corbyn has done a shady backroom deal with Nicola Sturgeon for a referendum in Scotland, something which I don’t think much of his party is particularly happy with but it is a position which Jeremy Corbyn has stated very clearly.”
Labour tried to dampen speculation of a deal by stating that a second independence referendum would not happen in the “formative years” of a Labour government.
Corbyn’s spokesman said: “You cannot trust anything that Boris Johnson says. There is no such agreement, no understanding, no deal. Labour would not support a bid for second referendum in the formative years of a Labour government.” He added: “Another important thing that Jeremy has laid down and made clear again and again, is that there would be no pacts, no coalitions, if Labour is the largest party, and that we would seek to form a government on that basis.” However, the official added: “If there was a request from the Scottish parliament and Scottish Government later on we would not seek to block it.” With Sturgeon confirming yesterday that she would push for another referendum next year, Johnson made it clear he would not grant the Section 30 order to organise a second independence vote. The Prime Minister said: “There was a referendum in 2014, the result was very clear, people were promised it would be a once-ina-generation referendum and
I don’t think we should break that promise.”
In the record-breaking 71 minute session Johnson also found time to agree with Scottish Tory MP John Lamont that the SNP were “obsessing about independence referendums” to cover forthe Sturgeon government’s poor record on the NHS.
Johnson said: “He’s absolutely right, and that is why they rant so incessantly about independence because they wish to distract, they wish to dead cat, as the saying goes, from the lamentable failure of the SNP Government in Scotland.
“If this goes on I think that the SNP will forfeit all right to manage the NHS in Scotland.”
Ian Blackford, the SNP Westminster leader, hit back – and told the Commons that each time the Prime Minister came to Scotland in the election campaign he would drive up nationalist support. He dismissed heckles from Scottish Conservative Stephen Kerr with a boast that the Tories faced wipe-out in the December election.
He said: “Like so many others he will not be coming back here.”
In an attack line on Corbyn, the Prime Minister claimed a Labour government would be “consigning next year, which should be a wonderful year for our country, to two more referendums”, one on the EU and one on Scotland.
However, the Labour leader managed to switch the focus of the exchanges into a clash on the NHS and the prospect of Johnson facilitating a post-Brexit trade deal with Donald Trump that would open the NHS to private US suppliers.
The Labour leader challenged Johnson to a one-on-one TV debate and accused him of running down the health service.