THERESA CLIPS SNP’S WINGS
May promises to thwart plan for second referendum ‘Public consent’ test must be met before any new vote
THERESA May yesterday vowed to block a second independence referendum unless there is clear evidence of ‘public consent’ for one.
The devastating blow to the SNP bid to break up Britain came as the Prime Minister also insisted there would not be another vote on the issue until the ‘Brexit process has played out’.
This signals it could be several years before another referendum is considered. And in a direct attack on First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the Tory manifesto unveiled by Mrs May hit out at those who ‘disrupt our attempts to get the best deal for Scotland and the United Kingdom’ in negotiations with the EU with continued calls for an independence vote.
Instead, it called for all parts of the UK to ‘pull together’ during Brexit talks and signalled Holyrood could gain a number of new powers afterwards. The Union was given prominent billing within the 84-page document, which included the Tories’ full title ‘The Conservative and Unionist Party’.
Mrs May said that as ‘the most successful political union in modern history’ the UK has the ‘strength to change things for the better, for everyone’.
One of her key pledges is to protect a ‘strong and stable Union, with no
divisive Scottish referendum at this time’. The manifesto states: ‘We have been very clear that now is not the time for another referendum on independence.
‘In order for a referendum to be fair, legal and decisive, it cannot take place until the Brexit process has played out and it should not take place unless there is public consent for it to happen. This is the time to pull together, not apart.’
Although the document did not outline what ‘public consent’ means, it is understood that this could include polling data over a sustained period which shows clear evidence that a majority of Scots back another vote.
Previously, Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson suggested this would mean consistent 60 per cent support for a referendum in opinion polls.
After an independence poll in Quebec in 1995, laws were introduced in the form of a Clarity Act, meaning that future proposals for independence would need to be backed by 60 per cent of the electorate.
Miss Sturgeon has already requested a Section 30 order from the UK Government which would allow her to hold another referendum in Scotland.
This followed a vote in the Scotfesto
‘Get the best deal for Scotland’
tish parliament in which the SNP and Greens backed breaking up the UK, with the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems rejecting it.
However, Mrs May has already said ‘now is not the time’ and her manifesto yesterday strengthened her position.
She also ruled out another referendum until after the Brexit process – which could push another vote back until after the next Holyrood elections in 2021.
This is despite Miss Sturgeon’s goal of holding the referendum between the autumn of 2018 and spring 2019 – as soon as the deal for leaving the EU is known.
The Tory manifesto states: ‘The United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union but some would disrupt our attempts to get the best deal for Scotland and the United Kingdom with calls for a divisive referendum that the people of Scotland do not want.’
Mrs May’s election blueprint included a passionate defence of the Union, insisting that ‘its very existence recognises the value of unity – England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales achieve less as two, three or four, than as the United Kingdom together.’
It adds: ‘This unity between our nations and peoples gives us the strength to change things for the better, for everyone, with a scale of ambition we simply could not possess alone.’
Speaking after the launch yesterday, Scottish Secretary David Mundell said: ‘From the Borders to the North Sea, this manifesto delivers for Scotland.
‘It shows that a re-elected Conservative government will continue to ensure that Scotland benefits from its membership of the United Kingdom.
‘The more Scottish Conservative MPs we elect on June 8, the more MPs we will have at the heart of Westminster able to deliver even more for Scotland.
‘All this is underpinned by the key commitment in today’s mani- – and that is to say no to the SNP’s reckless plan for a second referendum so Scotland can move on, together.’
Following the 2015 General Election, Mr Mundell was the only Tory MP in Scotland. But the party is hoping to build on a successful local election result and has targeted a number of key seats.
‘Say no to the SNP’s reckless plan’
This includes several in the Borders and in the North East, where party officials believe they could oust senior Nationalists including former First Minister Alex Salmond, deputy leader Angus Robertson and Pete Wishart.
As well as the Prime Minister strengthening her position on the Union, the Tory manifesto has set out a number of policies to improve Scotland’s economy. In a second direct attack on Miss Sturgeon, it says: ‘Scotland’s economic growth has lagged behind the rest of the United Kingdom in recent years.
‘The Scottish Government has the tools to drive economic growth in Scotland but we take seriously our duty to secure prosperity for the whole of the United Kingdom.’
And it pledges to ‘help secure the long-term sustainability of the Scottish economy’ with a number of key pledges.
These include a promise to work with the fishing industry to introduce a replacement for the hated Common Fisheries Policy, to develop a decommissioning industry for North Sea oil and build a new concert hall in Edinburgh to mark the 70th anniversary of the Edinburgh Festival.
The Tories have committed to repatriating a number of powers from Brussels to Holyrood following Brexit.
Mrs May will today join Miss Davidson in Edinburgh to launch the Scottish Conservative manifesto ahead of next month’s election.
It is expected to repeat many of the same pledges in policy areas reserved to Westminster and outline the party’s stance on devolved areas such health, education and income tax.
Last night, the SNP’s deputy leader, Angus Robertson, said: ‘The Tories have made a rod for their own back because if they now fail to win the election in Scotland, they have no basis whatsoever on which to continue to thwart the will of the Scottish parliament.’
WHAT a blessed relief that Theresa May has clipped the SNP’s wings with a Conservative manifesto that puts protecting the Union at its very heart.
And how adroit Mrs May’s pledge to Scotland is. Rather than a slapdown, a brutal and final No to another referendum, she has left the decision ultimately up to us, the Scottish people.
She has repeated that there can be no discussion of another vote until the manifold complexities of Brexit – the biggest task facing whoever takes the reins of power on June 9 – are settled, the new deal bedded in.
But then, in the (highly unlikely) event of a massive popular clamour for separation, it would be for Scotland to decide.
So the SNP fox is shot. It can have its vote – if it can persuade the public that its threadbare blueprint for separation is worth a glance and that it is a safe pair of hands. Good luck with that after ten years of indolence and ineptitude and Holyrood.
At Mrs May’s campaign launch, gone were the gimmicks, glitz and disingenuity of the Cameron and Blair eras and the cynical manifestos replete with pledges their authors had no intention of keeping.
Nor did Mrs May seek to exploit the weakness of her opponents by playing safe.
Instead, this vicar’s daughter took the riskier option: to be unremittingly honest with the public about the great challenges this country faces in the years ahead, to spell out how she intends to confront them and to promise only what she can deliver.
This was a grown-up politician treating the electorate as grown-ups.
‘It is the responsibility of leaders to be straight with people about the challenges ahead and the hard work required to overcome them,’ she said.
True to her word, Mrs May is honest about tax, so the reckless tax freeze goes. She will be generous to pensioners, but the expensive triple-lock is adjusted.
Yes, there were spending pledges running to the billions, but she doesn’t pretend there is a magic money tree. Eliminating the deficit will be pushed back to 2025.
Mrs May is honest, too, about her governing philosophy. While recognising that a strong economy comes first she rejects ‘untrammelled’ free markets and ‘selfish individualism’.
Nor will she ‘walk by on the other side’ while working people suffer. Indeed, keeping to her promise – from the steps of Downing Street last year – to stand up for those just managing, she will defend consumers against rapacious capitalism, whether profiteering energy companies, rip-off rail firms or a City elite deaf to outrage over excessive pay.
These policies – and her determination to protect workers and promote social justice – do not, as some of her critics argue, make Mrs May any less a Conservative.
Funding our military defences properly and raising tax thresholds – in contrast to the spendthrift SNP – appeal not only to Tory traditionalists, but also to millions of decent, patriotic, hardworking people who have been abandoned by Labour.
On the most important issue of all, Brexit, she is the only party leader who will not betray both the 17million who voted for leave and who realises most Remain voters accept the result and simply want a Prime Minister who will go in to bat for all of Britain.
This is not without its risks, particularly if she drifts too far to the Left (particularly on the minimum wage).
But if Mrs May leads this country through Brexit and implements even half of her ambitious programme for government, she could transform this country – and in doing so restore trust in British politics so badly damaged in recent decades.
The Mail believes wholeheartedly she must be given the chance.