Truss insists: I WILL work with Nicola if it helps UK
After branding Sturgeon an attention seeker and vowing to ignore her...
LIZ Truss is prepared to work with Nicola Sturgeon if it involves ‘priorities of the UK’ and not her push for independence.
The Tory leadership frontrunner’s allies yesterday doubled down on comments branding the First Minister an ‘attention seeker’ and pledging to ignore her.
But her campaign team clarified she only intended to ignore Miss Sturgeon if she is pushing the case for independence.
The comments divided Scottish Tories. Supporters said they are ‘in line with public opinion’ but MSPs who intend to back Rishi Sunak branded them ‘ill-informed’ and said her approach would not win any new voters in an election campaign.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, one of Miss Truss’s highest profile supporters, fuelled SNP outrage by accusing the First Minister of ‘always moaning’ and ‘waffling on endlessly’ about another independence referendum.
When asked about Miss Sturgeon’s push for a referendum during Monday night’s hustings in Exeter, Miss Truss said: ‘I really believe we are a family and we’re better together, and I think the best thing to do with Nicola Sturgeon is ignore her.’
She added: ‘I’m sorry, she is an attention seeker, that’s what she is. And what we need to do is show the people of Scotland,
‘There will be no second referendum’
Northern Ireland and Wales what we are delivering for them, and making sure that all of our government policies apply right across the United Kingdom.’
Asked to clarify if the comments were specifically about ignoring any push for an independence referendum or a more general comment about not being willing to work with Miss Sturgeon, a source in her campaign team said: ‘Liz is keen to work with the devolved administrations to deliver on the priorities of the UK.
‘However, she has made it clear to the Scottish people that there will be no second referendum – instead, Whitehall and Holyrood will continue to focus on putting more money in their pockets and delivering on their priorities.’
Mr Rees-Mogg launched a further attack on Miss Sturgeon when he was asked about the comments during a Sky News interview yesterday. He said: ‘What we need to do is to hold Miss Sturgeon to account for the failings of the Scottish Government to deliver services for the people of Scotland.
‘And when she is waffling on endlessly about having a referendum and going to the Supreme Court and all of this, we need to be saying, “Hold on, you’re doing this because you are failing to deliver for the people of Scotland”.’
He said being part of the UK has helped Scotland get through the coronavirus pandemic and he criticised the
First Minister for her approach to lockdown restrictions.
Mr Rees-Mogg said: ‘It was the United Kingdom that had the resources and the firepower to help this country get out of Covid before other countries to the huge benefit of our economy, while Nicola Sturgeon was doing daily press conferences wanting them in a permanent lockdown. So I think she’s very often wrong, she’s always moaning and we need to focus on how the union benefits people.’
Murdo Fraser, one of the MSPs who has endorsed Miss Truss’s campaign, defended Miss Truss’s comments. Citing polling showing fewer than one in three Scots want another referendum within Miss Sturgeon’s timescale, he told BBC Radio Scotland: ‘Liz Truss is far more in tune with the majority of Scottish opinion on this issue than Nicola Sturgeon is.
‘So I think Liz Truss was absolutely right to say this is not the time for another independence referendum, I won’t be sanctioning it on my watch, and there are other priorities that the Scottish Government should be focusing on.’
But Maurice Golden, one of eight MSPs and two Scottish MPs to write a joint article backing Mr Sunak yesterday, said: ‘I think the comments are ill-informed for someone who could be prime minister.
‘While undoubtedly Nicola Sturgeon is an attention seeker, she should be ignored at our peril because we need to be making the positive case for the Union, we need to be ensuring that we have sound economic policy, and ignoring Nicola Sturgeon is undoubtedly the wrong thing to do.’
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the comments from Miss Truss were ‘obnoxious’ and ‘completely and utterly unacceptable’. He added: ‘Nicola Sturgeon has far more democratic legitimacy than Liz Truss is going to have if she becomes prime minister, and I think Liz Truss has absolutely no right or foundation to make these remarks.’
ALL political careers, Enoch Powell famously said, end in failure. Boris Johnson is an exception to that rule. Brief though his term in Downing Street has been, he made the right calls at the right time on the big issues.
He began by delivering a Brexit deal against all odds and ended by galvanising the world against the barbarous Vladimir Putin.
In between, he guided the country through the worst pandemic in a century and facilitated a vaccine miracle that was the envy of every other nation.
Historians will surely judge that in a time of profound crisis, he proved a rare and resounding success. And they will wonder at the series of events which caused his own MPs to reject him.
For these and many other reasons, the Mail fervently believes the current Tory leadership race is a contest that simply should not be happening.
We are confident Mr Johnson could have recovered from the campaign mounted against him and gone on to win another election.
But we are where we are and Mr Johnson’s best revenge now would be to live well and enjoy spending time with his wife and young children.
Given his literary skills and oratorical gifts, his financial future is assured. He has a story to tell which publishers will be falling over each other to commission. And he could command stratospheric sums for public speaking.
Meanwhile, Tory members have an awesome weight on their shoulders in replacing him.
The voting forms now dropping on to their doormats will determine not just the next party leader, or even the next prime minister.
It’s no exaggeration to say they have the future of the country in their hands.
From the beginning of the electoral process, this paper has maintained that the final ballot should be between the two stand-out candidates, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.
And after a few ups and downs, that has proved to be the case.
But we should take a moment to consider the initial line-up.
Of eight contenders, four were women and four of ethnic minority heritage.
What a glowing testament to the inclusivity and diversity of the Conservative Party – achieved not by any quota system but purely on merit.
So what of the two finalists? Both have extensive Cabinet experience on which they can be judged – and we believe either will wipe the floor with Sir Keir Starmer.
As this leadership contest has progressed, the clear blue water between Mr Sunak and Miss Truss has been growing.
Rishi was the ante-post favourite with Tory MPs, and it’s easy to see why. Intelligent and engaging, he successfully steered the economy through Covid and has a true expert’s grasp of economic theory and policy detail.
He is also an original Brexiteer with an aspirational back-story that epitomises the Tory ideal of hard work and initiative bringing their just rewards. But there are serious caveats.
As Chancellor, he took the tax burden to a 75-year high and supports swingeing increases in business levies. He froze tax thresholds, and drove through the universally resented rise in National Insurance contributions, in breach of a solemn manifesto commitment.
In addition, he will be forever seen by many Tory members as a Brutus figure for stabbing his friend in the back. Whoever wields the sword, they say, seldom wears the crown.
Miss Truss by contrast has been unfailingly loyal to her former boss. She also opposed that NI rise while in Cabinet on the grounds that struggling families needed help now, not airy promises of jam tomorrow.
That is the key difference between the two rivals. Mr Sunak is a natural technocrat, albeit a clever one; Miss Truss an authentic standardbearer for low-tax, small-state Conservatism.
Mr Sunak might be a perfect PM for normal times. These are not normal times. As well as a deepening fuel crisis and cost of living crunch, we have a country increasingly dominated by woke Left-wing orthodoxies and an arrogant Whitehall blob which actively frustrates reform.
Free speech and the rich diversity of opinion for which this country is famed are under grave threat in our schools, universities and institutions.
Boris made a start at trying to restore some sanity. The next leader must take up the torch.
Miss Truss has grown visibly in stature as this contest has progressed. From an awkward start she has relaxed and connected with the party faithful – very much her kind of people.
She has questioned the efficacy of green levies and pledged to rout the blob – both of which will see her vilified by the wokerati. She should regard that as a badge of honour.
Mr Johnson was carried into government on a wave of voter optimism and a rejection of the sclerotic political status quo. We believe the positive can-do spirit that ushered him in lives on.
Blessed with Yorkshire grit, Miss Truss has the boldness, imagination and strength of conviction to tap into it and build on what Boris began. She’s acutely aware that business as usual is not an option.
But, as Eddie Barnes argues elsewhere in this paper, Miss Truss must tread carefully in her dealings with Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP.
Her outburst on Monday, before assembled party faithful, that the First Minister was an attention seeker who should be ignored, was grist to the mill for the Nationalists who will use it as ammunition if Miss Truss makes it to No 10.
While her assurances that she will stand firm against Miss Sturgeon’s repeated attempts at a second referendum will come as a relief to Unionists, she must now set out the positive case for the Union, persuading voters of the benefits – that we are indeed better together.
In fact, she could learn a lesson or two from Mr Johnson and his predecessor Theresa May, whose deft, diplomatic handling of the Nationalists offers something of a template in how to avoid SNP traps for the next incumbent of No 10.
Importantly, Miss Truss can unite the Conservative Party and end this depressing spasm of blue-on-blue warfare.
She will be being dropped straight into the deep end and should be under no illusion about the enormity of her task. Profound problems require radical solutions.
Success will require iron discipline in Downing Street and a government of all available talents – hopefully including Mr Sunak.
As has already been pointed out, he could bring his intellect and drive to tackling Britain’s biggest problem area – the NHS.
It’s true that Sir Keir is an oceangoing dud – but with help from SNP, Lib Dems, Greens and the rest of the deluded Left he could conceivably cobble together a gimcrack government.
The consequences of such a cabal in power should send a shiver of fear down the spine of those who truly believe in this great country.
We don’t doubt that Miss Truss has the guts, gumption and guile to stop that happening. But she must not rely on Labour’s uselessness to get her through.
As her idol Mrs Thatcher said in her last conference speech before becoming PM: ‘We want to be elected because we can do better, not because we couldn’t possibly do worse.’
The Mail believes Miss Truss is able, willing and ready for the task.