I’LL NEVER LET UNION FALL APART

PM’s vow to defend UK as she warns that Corbyn is only six seats away from No 10

THERESA May yesterday launched her most passionate plea for the Union yet, vowing that defending Scotland’s place in the UK is her ‘personal priority’.

The Prime Minister said she ‘will never stand by and let our Union drift apart’ and promised to put her ‘heart and soul’ into keeping the UK together. Mrs May was in Edinburgh to launch the Scottish Conservative manifesto for next month’s General Election with Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson.

The PM pledged that, if re-elected, she would lead a ‘Unionist government’ which would work tirelessly to strengthen the UK’s position at home and abroad.

Meanwhile, in a personal message in today’s Scottish Daily Mail, the Prime Minister gives a stark warning against complacency, stating that the Conservatives are only six seats away from election defeat.

It follows recent evidence of a recovery in Labour’s poll ratings,

and controversy over Tory plans to reform social care, which saw the first cracks emerge in the campaign yesterday.

Launching the Tory Party’s UK manifesto on Thursday, the Prime Minister strengthened her hand against SNP calls for another referendum, saying one could not take place before the Brexit process has ‘played out’ and until there is clear ‘public consent’.

Mrs May has now vowed that as long as she is in Downing Street she ‘will never stand by and let our Union drift apart’.

She said: ‘Across the United Kingdom, we may be four nations, but at heart we are one people. We all have a stake in each other’s success.’

However, Mrs May has admitted fears that Labour could edge back and win the General Election – if Tory voters are complacent.

In today’s Mail, she describes Labour’s extraordinary tax and spend manifesto, which would spark a £50billion spending spree, as ‘a despairing document from a divisive party, written and shaped by a leader who doesn’t understand – or like – our country’.

In a highly personal attack, she questions Jeremy Corbyn’s patriotism and warns his ‘extreme ideological obsessions’ would damage Britain.

But, in a tacit admission that the Labour leader’s ‘fantastical promises’ could prove attractive to some, she pledges to ‘redouble my efforts to earn every vote’ – and points out that she would lose her narrow majority if Labour gains only six seats.

‘Jeremy Corbyn has spent decades apologising for Britain,’ she writes. ‘He accuses me of wanting to wrap myself in the Union Flag, as if that were a term of abuse. It’s little wonder that even traditional Labour voters look at what he believes in and are appalled.

‘He has disowned and rejected the core values of Labour’s most loyal supporters to put his own extreme ideological obsessions first.

‘The prospect of him walking through the door of Number 10, flanked by John McDonnell and Diane Abbott and propped up by the Liberal Democrat and nationalist parties, should scare us all.’

Mrs May also used her speech in Edinburgh to hit out at Mr Corbyn, claiming that he is ‘too weak to stand up for the Union, even if he wanted to’ after he said it would be ‘absolutely fine’ for another divisive vote.

The Prime Minister has caused concern over the scrapping of the winter fuel allowance for up to ten million pensioners, depriving them of payments worth up to £300 a year.

The issue is said to have divided members of Mrs May’s inner circle – and is blamed by some for delays in publication of the UK manifesto.

But Miss Davidson has backed the retention of the allowance for one million Scots pensioners. The issue is devolved to the Scottish parliament and the Scottish Tory leader has insisted she has no plans to support means testing north of the Border.

She claimed that there are a number of differences between her manifesto and that of the UK party – because devolution allows her to do so.

Labour seized on the issue yesterday, with shadow chancellor John McDonnell suggesting it could put Mr Corbyn in Downing Street.

‘We’re going to win,’ he said. ‘We’re rising in the polls and now that people have seen this Tory manifesto, I tell you ten million pensioners out there will be very angry.’

Comment – Page 18

‘This should scare us all’