NOW BACK ME TO SAVE OUR PRECIOUS UNION
PM stuns opponents by calling snap General Election and prepares for showdown with SNP, telling Scots:
THERESA may vowed to fight hard for our ‘precious Union’ after she announced a shock snap e lection t hat w ill b e d ominated i n S cotland b y t he S NP’s bid to break up Britain.
The Prime Minister caused a political earthquake on the steps of Downing Street yesterday by unveiling plans for a General Election on June 8. Mrs May insisted that the election will allow her to build a ‘stronger Britain’ as she takes negotiations forward to leave the European Union.
But First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called it a massive ‘miscalculation’ and insisted that the result would ‘reinforce’ her demands for a second independence referendum.
This is certain to be the key campaign issue north of the Border.
Last night, Mrs May – who has already confirmed she will reject Miss Sturgeon’s demand
for the power to hold a referendum – said: ‘I will be out there championing the cause of the United Kingdom. I believe that we are stronger as a United Kingdom. I think this union we have between Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales is a precious union. I think we all benefit by it and I will unashamedly be out there campaigning for the future of the United Kingdom.’
The Prime Minister cited opposition to Brexit from the SNP, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the ‘unelected’ House of Lords as her reason for going to the polls.
MPs will vote today on whether to endorse the election call – a move made necessary by the Fixed Term Parliaments Act passed by the coalition government. But, with opposition parties suggesting they would not stand in the way of an election, the move looked to be a formality. Meanwhile, on a tumultuous day at Westminster:
A snap poll gave Mrs May a 21-point lead over Labour, which would translate into a Commons majority of more than 140.
A Labour MP pleaded with Jeremy Corbyn to step down to avert a wipeout.
Former Labour home secretary Alan Johnson led an expected exodus of Labour MPs who will quit rather than fight to put Mr Corbyn in No 10.
Mrs May angered opposition leaders and broadcasters by warning she would not take part in televised debates.
The Prime Minister called foreign leaders, including Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny and EU chiefs Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, to explain her decision.
Chancellor Philip Hammond said a sharp rise in the pound showed the markets had confidence in the future ‘under a Conservative government with a new mandate’.
Tory sources confirmed that controversial election strategist Sir Lynton Crosby, who masterminded David Cameron’s surprise win in 2015, has been hired to help run the campaign again.
Mrs May had previously said repeatedly that she would not hold an early election. Her decision is a major U-turn – and a high-risk move as it could rob the Tory Party of the narrow majority it secured in 2015. But it could also allow it to reduce the SNP’s dominance of Scottish seats at Westminster.
In 2015, the SNP won 56 of Scotland’s 59 constituencies – although it has since lost two MPs after suspending them following police investigations into their conduct.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has declared she is confident her party will win seats from the SNP. And Tory sources believe a decline in SNP numbers at Westminster would strengthen
‘We oppose the SNP’s divisive plan’
the case for Mrs May rejecting an independence referendum.
As she announced her decision yesterday, Mrs May said an election was required as ‘the country is coming together’ after the Brexit vote but ‘Westminster is not’.
Pointing out that the SNP is threatening to vote against the socalled Great Repeal Bill, which will formally end the supremacy of EU law in the UK, she said opponents at Westminster believe the UK Government will ‘change course’ because it has a small majority.
She said: ‘What they are doing jeopardises the work we must do to prepare for Brexit at home and it weakens the Government’s negotiating position in Europe.
‘If we do not hold a General Election now their political gameplaying will continue, and the negotiations with the European Union will reach their most difficult stage in the run-up to the next scheduled election. Division in Westminster will risk our ability to make a success of Brexit and it will cause damaging uncertainty and instability to the country.’
Pledging to campaign for the Union, she said: ‘Every vote for the Conservatives will make me stronger when I negotiate for Britain with the prime ministers, presidents and chancellors of the European Union. Every vote for the Conservatives means we can stick to our plan for a stronger Britain and take the right long-term decisions for a more secure future.’
She mentioned the House of Lords, saying its ‘unelected members’ had ‘vowed to fight us every step of the way’ over Brexit.
The SNP has pledged it will not stand in the way of an election, which is certain to secure majority backing in the Commons today.
Miss Sturgeon insisted yesterday that she would use it to increase pressure on the UK Government to allow a second independence referendum. She wants a vote between the autumn of 2018 and the spring of 2019. But Mrs May has confirmed she will reject this, saying that a referendum should not take place during negotiations on leaving the EU.
Following Mrs May’s announcement yesterday, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘In terms of Scotland, this move is a huge political miscalculation by the Prime Minister.
‘It will once again give people the opportunity to reject the Tories’ narrow, divisive agenda, as well as reinforcing the democratic mandate which already exists for giving the people of Scotland a choice on their future.’
She later told the BBC: ‘This election will be about the kind of country we want Scotland to be and whether we want the Tories to have a free hand in determining that or whether we want to make sure we stand up for Scotland’s public services, for public spending, against further Tory austerity.’
Miss Sturgeon had been due to reveal her ‘next steps’ towards securing an independence referendum after the Easter recess. She is now expected to delay that until after the election – as her spokesman said there was ‘not a UK Government to deal with’.
The spokesman said that the demand for a referendum would ‘undoubtedly’ be an issue in the election campaign, and added: ‘I think the Prime Minister might have miscalculated if she thinks that having this is going to give her a clear mandate in Scotland against a referendum.’
Miss Davidson said: ‘We will have a clear election message – only a vote for the Scottish Conservatives will ensure we get the strong leadership we need to get the best Brexit deal for the whole country. And only a vote for the Scottish Conservatives will send a strong message that we oppose the SNP’s divisive plan for a second referendum.’
PERHAPS the biggest surprise about Theresa May’s bold call for a snap election on June 8 was that it came as a surprise to the Westminster village.
The Mail believes this was not just a brave and shrewd decision. It was also the only way open to her of clearing the air, ending the dirty tricks of her enemies at Westminster and maximising her chances of driving the best possible deal for our country in the Brexit negotiations.
As for Mrs May’s timing, it says much for her steadiness that she so long resisted the temptation of cashing in on Opposition disarray.
She hesitated because she believed voters wanted a period of calm after the Scottish independence referendum of 2014, the General Election of 2015 and last year’s EU vote.
She felt a duty to press on with momentous work, ideally until 2020, making the best of the mandate she inherited without the distraction of yet another campaign.
Indeed, it is through no wish of hers that delaying the election has become increasingly unrealistic. As she made clear, the blame for this lies squarely with pro-Remain agitators – many within her own party – and opportunists such as the SNP.
The Nationalists, Labour, Lib Dems and unelected peers – all seized on the slimness of the Government majority to try to sabotage Brexit.
As the Prime Minister pointed out: ‘What they are doing jeopardises the work we must do to prepare for Brexit at home, and it weakens the Government’s negotiating position in Europe.
‘If we do not hold a General Election now their political game-playing will continue, and the negotiations with the EU will reach their most difficult stage in the run-up to the next scheduled election.’
The few weeks ahead, she said, offer a one-off opportunity to get a vote out of the way before the EU agrees its position and detailed talks begin.
Of course, no election is a foregone conclusion – and the pollsters, who give the Tories a seemingly unassailable lead today, have recently proved wildly and repeatedly wrong.
Complacency would be foolish though it is hard to imagine Mrs May will do anything other than increase her majority.
But what of Scotland? The SNP has , with no trace of irony, criticised Mrs May, saying she is putting party before country – standard Nationalist procedure.
And it will of course try to turn the June election into a proxy fight over independence. Already the nonsense has started, with the separatists’ useful idiots predicting SNP gains will inevitably lead to another referendum. This is based on a credulous acceptance that Miss Sturgeon – who let a Holyrood majority slip through her fingers – can halt the decline in separatist fortunes.
Yet her party is reeling from criticism of its feeble performance at Holyrood, while its cohort of MPs has been noisy but utterly ineffectual.
Miss Sturgeon hitched her party’s wagon to the EU, gambling that Scots are all Europhiles happy to break with Britain but not with the EU.
It looks like a failed ploy. Independence support has stalled, while SNP supporters, perhaps 300,000 of them, have emerged as pro-Brexit.
Now the resurgent Tories under Ruth Davidson can reinforce their success with their unfaltering pro-Union stance. Even the broken Liberal Democrats must fancy their chances of modest gains. Labour, saddled with unelectable Jeremy Corbyn as national leader, would do well to play the Unionist card here.
The SNP must increase its vote share to give its claim to have a mandate for another independence referendum even a shred of credibility.
It will be no easy task for a party that has done little to improve education, the NHS, transport, justice and the economy while breaking promises – ‘once in a generation’ anyone? – with abandon.
This is why the Mail urges Mrs May to return to the themes she spelled out on her first day as Prime Minister, when she pledged to devote herself to hard-working families.
On Europe, she should spell out her negotiating red lines in the Tory manifesto: no more unrestricted freedom of movement; no more subjection of British judges to European courts; and withdrawal from the single market, setting us free to strike trade deals with partners of our choice worldwide.
And there should also be a clear-cut promise that constitutional distractions such as Indyref 2 should be parked until Brexit is settled.
This will also be her opportunity to rein in the powers of the Lords.
With the IMF only yesterday doubling its post-referendum forecast of UK growth, every vote she wins on June 8 will further strengthen her hand in the vital negotiations ahead.
This was the right decision for Britain – and Scotland. The Mail wishes her every success.