BORIS: I WILL SAVE THE UK

EXCLUSIVE: Leadership hopeful says new PM should also be Minister for the Union

BORIS Johnson today delivers a passionate pledge to safeguard the United Kingdom – calling it ‘the most successful political and economic union in history’.

He announces that as Prime Minister, he would take on a brand new title of Minister for the Union. Savaging SNP plans for independence, he vows to do ‘anything in my power to stop that disaster’.

He also attacks Theresa May’s claim a No Deal Brexit would risk Scotland’s relationship with the rest of the UK. Some Scots Tories fear Mr Johnson’s election would weaken the Union – especially after a poll found it would increase support for independence to 53 per cent.

But he argues a successful Brexit will instead make the SNP’s goal of separation even more difficult to achieve. Writing in today’s Scottish Mail on

Sunday, Mr Johnson spells out exactly how he hopes to strengthen the ties binding Scotland to England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

He promises to launch a new unit in Number Ten to ‘sense test and stress test every policy for the results it may bring to the Union’.

Mr Johnson believes that the UK Government has been too ‘bashful’ in claiming credit for investment in projects north of the Border.

He also pledges to make the cash paid to Armed Forces personnel in Scotland – to compensate them for SNP income tax hikes – a permanent arrangement.

Mr Johnson argues a successful Brexit would make it more difficult for the SNP to make the case for separation – especially if it means re-entering the EU.

Scotland’s trade with the rest of the UK is worth four times more than with the EU.

Aside from trade barriers, swapping the UK for the EU would raise awkward questions about currency, freedom of movement and giving powers back to Brussels.

Mr Johnson says: ‘Are they going to use the euro in Scotland, submit to Schengen rules on immigration for Scotland and make Scottish business and citizens bow to the full panoply of EU law – while the rest of the UK, Scotland’s most important trading partner, seeks a different and more global destiny?’

The SNP has accused the UK Government of ‘a power grab’ since the Brexit vote. It has complained about powers being returned from Brussels to Westminster, rather than to Holyrood, and has even claimed that the Scottish parliament itself is at risk.

But Mr Johnson stresses he is a supporter of devolution and has no plans to reverse it – though he warns ‘devolution must not mean dissolution’.

In contrast to accusations of Project Fear against the No campaign in the 2014 referendum, he makes clear the UK’s case under his leadership will be unremittingly positive.

He describes the UK as ‘the most successful political and economic union in history’.

He cites a think-tank which said the UK was the second most influential country in the world, behind only the US. ‘I simply cannot understand why anyone would want to mutilate this country and to break it up,’ he adds. ‘So if I am lucky enough to be elected in the next few weeks, I will do anything in my power to stop that disaster and to bring this country together.’

Yesterday, the SNP attacked both Mr Johnson and his rival for the Tory leadership, Jeremy Hunt, claiming they were ‘two peas in a pod’.

The Nationalists said both men had voted together on welfare policies, EU citizens’ rights and Trident renewal, among other things.

Caithness, Sutherland and

‘A different and more global destiny’

‘Devolution must not mean dissolution’

Ross Nationalist MSP Gail Ross said: ‘Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt are two peas in a pod – voting alongside one another at almost every opportunity to inflict a decade of damaging austerity.

‘Jeremy Hunt would have you believe that he’s the polar opposite of Boris Johnson – but it’s just a wafer-thin façade.

‘The reality is they’re carbon copy hardline Tories – both voting to impose cold, cruel and heartless policies.

‘They were happy to sit side by side while their party slashed the incomes of working families, stripped the rights of EU citizens and brought the NHS to its knees.

‘Neither Jeremy Hunt nor Boris Johnson is fit to be prime minister. People deserve better than this dangerous double act – it’s time for Scotland to decide