PM turns tables on ‘deniers of democracy’
BORIS Johnson has urged the SNP to ‘change the record’ on independence as he attacked Nicola Sturgeon’s government for failing to give children ‘the chances they deserve’.
The Prime Minister accused the Nationalists of putting their obsession with breaking up the UK ahead of educating youngsters.
He also turned the tables on SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford after being challenged over his rejection of Miss Sturgeon’s plea for a second independence poll.
On Tuesday, Mr Johnson refused to grant another referendum and urged Miss Sturgeon to focus on fixing her appalling record. He sent a letter to the SNP leader warning that another divisive vote would ‘continue the political stagnation’ of the past ten years in Scotland, leaving schools, hospitals and jobs behind.
At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Mr Blackford claimed the UK Government’s opposition to a Scexit vote is ‘undemocratic, unacceptable and completely unsustainable’. And he branded Mr Johnson a ‘democracy denier’. But the PM argued the SNP is denying democracy by failing to stick to the promise that the 2014 vote was a once in a generation event.
Mr Johnson said: ‘It was not only the right honourable gentleman who leads for the SNP in this House, it was also Alex Salmond and his protégée Nicola Sturgeon who said it was a once in a generation event.
‘He said it, they said it, they were right then, why have they changed their minds? He is the denier of democracy.’ He added: ‘Scotland under the SNP is the highest taxed part of the UK, the deficit is six times the UK average, maths and science in schools is actually going down in the Pisa [Programme for International Student Assessment] rankings, unlike any other part of the United Kingdom.
‘That is no fault of the pupils in Scotland by the way, it is the fault of the government of Scotland under the SNP who are not giving them the chances they deserve because they are obsessed with breaking up the United Kingdom. Change the record.’