Cameron ‘did not care about saving Union’

A FORMER Cabinet Minister has accused David Cameron of privately stating that he does not care about the prospect of Scottish independence.

David Laws, Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the early days of the last coalition Government, said former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg warned Mr Cameron that he was ‘in danger of guaranteeing the break-up of the UK’ shortly after the 2014 referendum.

The Prime Minister is said to have responded: ‘Look, Nick, I just don’t care.’

The Tories’ opponents said the alleged remarks, in Mr Laws’s memoirs, showed the party’s ‘contempt for Scotland’ and contradict their election platform as the guardians of the Union. But a Downing Street source said: ‘It’s hearsay and tittle-tattle. The proof of the pudding is that we’ve completed the Scotland Act, delivered The Vow, and created a powerhouse parliament for Scotland.’

Lib Dem Mr Laws quit the Coalition after only 16 days in 2010 when it was revealed that he had directed more than £40,000 of taxpayers’ money to his secret gay lover.

His new book, Coalition: The Inside Story Of The Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government, states that Mr Clegg made his ‘blunt’ warning to Mr Cameron just after the September 18 vote. It continues: ‘“Look, Nick,” said David Cameron impatiently, “I just don’t care. We’ve only got one Conservative MP north of the Border. Let Labour sort it out. It’s now their problem.”’

Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said the comments ‘blow a massive hole in Ruth Davidson’s claims that the Tories are the champions of the UK’ while the SNP said they showed the PM’s ‘contempt for Scotland’.