PM: I WILL STAND UP FOR QUIET MAJORITY OF SCOTS
EXCLUSIVE: May’s pledge to Mail readers
AS Prime Minister, I will always stand up for the United Kingdom. At this crucial General Election for our country, the Scottish Nationalists are pressing for a second independence referendum – and Jeremy Corbyn is more
than willing to grant their wish.
Indeed, Nicola Sturgeon has said in an interview during this campaign that she believes Scotland will be an independent state by 2025. So there has never been a more important time to send a clear message of support for our precious Union by voting Scottish Conservative.
The Union of Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales has stood the test of time.
Together we have achieved great things and together we are stronger as we face the challenges of the future.
That is my firm belief as we
prepare to leave the EU and build a Britain ready to seize the opportunities from our new role in the world.
In the years to come, we will all flourish as the United Kingdom, just as we have in the past.
Tearing our Union apart would not only sever the deep and historic ties that bind us as people, it would put our future prosperity at risk. So when Nicola Sturgeon demanded a second independence referendum, I stood firm. I said now was not the time.
Because a referendum would undermine our efforts to secure the right deal for Scotland and the whole of the UK in the crucial negotiations that are due to begin in just a few days’ time.
But as I have campaigned in Scotland over the past few weeks, I’ve been struck by another reason we must and will stand firm.
In the Borders, in Edinburgh, in the North-East – people have said the same thing to me: they do not want the uncertainty and upheaval of a second independence referendum.
They are rightly concerned about the vast damage that Nicola Sturgeon’s tunnel vision campaign is already doing to Scotland’s schools, health service and economy.
A decisive majority said No in 2014.
Now, people feel angry and betrayed by Nicola Sturgeon’s attempts to subvert a democratic decision which she promised would stand for a generation.
I share those feelings – but the same cannot be said for our Labour opponents in this election.
Before the campaign began, Jeremy Corbyn said that he was ‘absolutely fine’ with the prospect of a second independence referendum.
His colleagues in Scotland tried to dismiss the comment as a gaffe. It wasn’t. Only last week, he said he would ‘open discussions’ with the SNP on another referendum if he wins power.
And on Tuesday, we discovered Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale had offered to drop her opposition to independence.
It is clear Labour cannot be trusted to stand up to Nicola Sturgeon and to stand up for the majority of Scots who reject her referendum demands.
The truth is, Jeremy Corbyn would strike a deal with the Nationalists in a heartbeat if it gave him the keys to 10 Downing Street.
Throughout this campaign, Nicola Sturgeon has talked up her hopes of an alliance at Westminster.
We know what her price would be: an independence referendum and a return to the same old constitutional arguments we debated and decided less than three years ago. Britain would face a coalition of chaos, divided over its approach to Brexit and content to put our Union at risk to cling to power.
That is Jeremy Corbyn’s aim. It is Nicola Sturgeon’s aim. The SNP leader wants to use this election to ‘reinforce’ her demand for a second referendum.
Every vote she wins today will be hailed as an endorsement of independence. My commitment to the Union will not waver.
In constituencies right across Scotland, only the Conservatives are strong enough to take her on and win, to cut the Nationalists down to size.
We are the only party determined enough to reject her obsessive drive to break up the United Kingdom.
There is a quiet majority of people in Scotland who want to send out a very clear message to Nicola Sturgeon today.
They want her to drop her damaging talk of a second referendum and they want the First Minister to get on with the day job – to start improving schools and hospitals, to begin growing the economy.
The only way to make that message heard is to vote Conservative.
‘People feel angry and betrayed’