End ‘mission creep’ of devolution to save the Union, says Frost
WESTMINSTER must stop the ‘mission creep’ of devolution going beyond domestic politics and into foreign affairs to keep the Union safe, Lord Frost has warned.
Giving a ‘sober but realistic assessment’ of the problems facing the UK, the Conservative peer argued there needs to be an improved ‘sense of cohesion and common endeavour’ to rebuff Nationalist attempts to break up the Union.
In a wide-ranging ‘big picture’ essay, Lord Frost calls on the UK Government to start ‘standing up for the unity of the country’ and suggests a re-run of the 2014 independence vote should be refused unless polls continually show a sizable majority of public support for another referendum.
Writing for the Policy Exchange think tank, he said a priority was ‘ensuring that devolution is confined to domestic politics without the recent mission creep into foreign affairs and immigration’.
SNP ministers have come under fire for spending millions on their expansion of the Scottish Government’s overseas office network. They currently have premises in Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Dublin, Beijing, Washington and Ottawa with a new Copenhagen branch due to open next month, at a total cost of £9million this year.
External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson plans to open yet another branch in Warsaw, Poland, in the current Parliamentary term.
A Scottish Government spokesman insisted the offices ‘reaffirm diplomatic ties, improve its global networks and unlock new economic and trading opportunities’, while the Copenhagen branch will ‘increase Scotland’s visibility in the Nordic region’.
A sceptical Lord Frost wrote: ‘We need a sense of cohesion and common endeavour across the country.
‘We must revive the UK nation state and make it work; we need a smaller but more effective state that does its core tasks properly.’
He added that the Government needed to ‘re-establish the viability and the cohesion of the United Kingdom as a country’.
Expressing dismay at ‘appalling decisions’ by Boris Johnson’s government, he urged the Prime Minister’s successor not to bow to SNP demands for another vote. Lord Frost said the Government should be ‘making it clear a further referendum in Scotland is not justified and will never be unless there is a significant majority for independence over a sustained period’.
The peer, a special adviser to Mr Johnson before being appointed as the chief Brexit negotiator, also wrote: ‘The tax rises implemented and planned must be reversed. Immediate decisions on spending, including those on political projects such as HS2, will be required.
‘Energy policy must be refocused on security of supply and cost.’
Urging a reduction in the size of the state ‘to the size of the Tony Blair years’, Lord Frost suggested the Government could impose ‘lower and much simpler taxes’.
He also argued that the support for ‘revolt’ following the vote to leave the European Union had suffered a setback and needed ‘urgent’ action to protect Brexit.
‘The Johnson Government’s failure to capitalise on the mood for change and its reversion to policymaking norms on taxation and regulation meant momentum for change was lost,’ Lord Frost wrote.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘People in Scotland have voted for a parliament with a clear majority in favour of independence and with a mandate for an independence referendum.
‘As set out by the First Minister, the people of Scotland will have their say on Scotland’s future.’