The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Johnson plans Scottish tour to promote union
No 10 ‘alarmed’ by polls showing consistent majority support for independence
Boris Johnson will hold crisis talks on the future of the union this week, as support for a second independence referendum continues to grow.
The prime minister is also planning a series of visits north of the border in a bid to persuade Scots to stick with the union.
Nicola Sturgeon’s soaring approval rating – and polls showing consistent majority support for independence for the first time – has alarmed No 10.
In response, the prime minister is to recall senior ministers to London for a briefing from a top Scots Tory official to discuss how to stop a landslide SNP victory in next May’s Holyrood election, which would ramp up demands for another independence vote.
Mark McInnes, the party’s Scottish director, is due to present data gathered by new Downing Street polling guru James Kanagasooriam, who helped mastermind Scottish Tory successes in 2016, tomorrow.
Ahead of the meeting, a cabinet minister told The Sunday Times: “Michael Gove is in panic mode about the union and Boris is in irritated mode.”
Meanwhile, the Scottish secretary has said claims that Holyrood powers are under threat by post-Brexit legislation are “absolute scaremongering”.
Alister Jack told BBC Scotland plans for a UK “internal market” amounted to a “power surge” and not a “power grab”.
The proposals have been set out in a white paper, with legislation to follow later in the year.
Scottish Constitutional Affairs Secretary Mike Russell said any assurances from the UK were “not true”.
Speaking on BBC Scotland’s Sunday Politics programme, Mr Jack said the objections raised by Mr Russell were a “confected red herring”.
He said there was “absolutely no threat” to Scottish government policies like free university tuition or alcohol minimum pricing.
“There is not a single power being taken away from Holyrood or any of the other devolved administrations and when challenged in parliament this week, they couldn’t come up with a single power they’re losing,” he said.
“This is absolutely a power surge for them, not a power grab.”
However, Mr Russell said he had “no doubt” that under the current proposals chlorinated chicken could be sold in Scotland, even if the Scottish Parliament did not want it.
Speaking earlier on the programme, he said the proposals were there because the UK wanted to be able to do “bad trade deals” with other countries as they were the “only trade deals left to them”.
“To do so they want to make sure that neither the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh Parliament or the Northern Irish Parliament can interfere with that,” he said.