Boris: We’ll cut SNP down to size
PM issues rousing rallying cry for Union – and vows to take f ight to crisis-hit Nats
BORIS Johnson will today vow to ‘cut the SNP down to size’ as he issues a passionate rallying cry for the Union.
The Prime Minister will lambast the SNP’s ‘obsession’ with independence, insisting: ‘We can build back better – but only if we all come together.’
Instead of another divisive referendum, he will urge Scots to bottle the ‘British spirit’ that is finally defeating Covid through a world-leading vaccination programme.
He will warn: ‘Let’s not throw away this British spirit and go back to the divisions of the past, forgetting our collective sacrifice.’
Mr Johnson will say that workers are more interested in what the Scottish Government can do to protect jobs and businesses, with another independence referendum ‘the last thing they need right now’.
He will also say: ‘With Douglas [Ross] and Ruth [Davidson], our very own dynamic duo, leading the campaign, we will find that the SNP are not as invincible as the pundits believe.’
The Prime Minister will address the Scottish Conservatives’ virtual conference today, where Ms Davidson yesterday delivered one of her last major speeches before leaving Holyrood in May.
She urged Unionists to back the Tories as the ‘only party’ that can deprive the Nationalists of a Holyrood majority – and stop them forcing through an illegal, wildcat referendum.
She told the conference: ‘Scotland can’t afford another five years of this divisive, distracting, destructive SNP obsession.’ The Tories have been buoyed in recent days by improved polling and an SNP that is in meltdown amid numerous scandals.
Nicola Sturgeon has come under growing pressure over the past few weeks as polls have shown a majority of Scots now back staying in the Union.
Support for the First Minister herself, the SNP and independletter ence have all slumped. Ms Sturgeon’s popularity among Scots has been badly dented by the damaging row with her former mentor Alex Salmond.
He has accused her of breaching the Ministerial Code – a resignation offence – in relation to her Government’s botched investigation into the handling of sexual misconduct allegations against him.
The probe resulted in a judicial review defeat in court, with the saga costing the taxpayer more than £500,000.
Last week, the SNP was rocked by yet more sleaze scandals, with two MPs accused of harassment.
One of them, Patrick Grady, the MP for Glasgow North, has resigned as chief whip while an investigation into the claims takes place.
In response, senior Nationalists at Westminster have demanded an enforceable code of practice, with the ultimate sanction of expulsion – not for harassment, but for leaking to the media – according to WhatsApp messages which have been revealed to The Scottish Mail on Sunday.
It has led to concerns that the party is more interested in ‘covering up’ its problems rather than dealing with them.
Ministers have also been accused of prioritising ‘petty politics’ around the constitution rather than rebuilding the economy after the pandemic.
It comes after the Creative Industries Federation sent a
‘Referendum last thing we need now’ ‘Scotland can’t afford divisive obsession’
to the Scottish Government outlining concerns for businesses in the cultural and arts sector – and sharing plans to change its name to Creative UK following a merger with Creative England.
In response, Fiona Hyslop, SNP Economy Secretary, issued a ‘bullying’ letter demanding that the body scrap plans to change its name and include ‘UK’ in its title.
The letter comes only six months after the Scottish Government objected to a £120 million Festival of Britain, due to be held next year – because of the use of the words ‘UK’ and ‘Britain’ in the event’s branding.
A POLICE firearms officer appeared in court yesterday charged with the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard.
Wayne Couzens, who is attached to Scotland Yard’s elite Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, is accused of abducting Ms Everard as she walked home from a friend’s flat in South London, killing her and attempting to hide her body in woodland.
The father-of-two appeared to have a black eye and a red wound on the top of his forehead while in the dock at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Before the hearing, Scotland Yard said he been taken to St George’s Hospital in Tooting for a second time in 48 hours on Friday. He was treated for a fresh head injury sustained in custody before being discharged. He was previously treated for a separate head wound on Thursday, also sustained when he was in his cell in Wandsworth Prison.
Couzens was brought to the court in a blue police van at 10am and stepped into the dock wearing a grey tracksuit about half an hour later. The 48-year-old stood behind a glass panel, flanked by a pair of plain-clothes officers in black face masks.
He struggled to be heard as he spoke only to confirm his name, address and date of birth.
The court heard that the remains of Ms Everard, a marketing manager, were found at 4.45pm on Wednesday in a builder’s bag in Ashford, Kent – 50 miles from where she was last seen. She was later identified from dental records.
Couzens, who was arrested at his home in Deal, Kent, is accused of kidnapping Ms Everard, 33, in the Poynders Road area of Clapham on March 3. He was off-duty at the time of her disappearance, but had been guarding the US Embassy in Battersea earlier that day.
At the end of the 20-minute hearing, Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring remanded him in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on Tuesday.
Prosecutor Zoe Martin said Ms Everard, who lived in Brixton, had visited a friend in the Clapham Junction area and left at around 9pm to make the twoand-a-half-mile journey home.
She made a phone call to her boyfriend for 14 minutes from 9.13pm but there was no subsequent activity on her phone, which has not been found. It is not clear whether the phone had been switched off or run out of battery, Ms Martin added.
Ms Everard was captured on CCTV at 9.15pm, again at 9.28pm and later caught on the camera of a police car at 9.32pm. She was reported missing at 8.10pm the following day by her boyfriend Josh Lowth after she failed to meet him as planned.
Meanwhile, police were seen
continuing a search around the area where Ms Everard’s body was found yesterday.
Couzens, who is married to Ukrainian-British scientist Elena, was a member of the Army Reserve and served in the 3rd Battalion The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment for two years from 2002.
He joined the Met Police in September 2018, transferring from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary at Dungeness nuclear power station in Kent. He moved to the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command in February last year.
Watchdogs at the Independent Office for Police Conduct have received five referrals over the Everard case and are investigating whether officers responded appropriately to an earlier allegation.