PM’s praise for star of the Union
Clashes over Johnson ‘posturing’ on Brexit overshadow the start of Tories’ conference
THERESA May last night declared that she and Ruth Davidson had ‘saved the Union’ thanks to a ‘monumental’ General Election result in Scotland.
The Prime Minister praised the 12 new Scottish MPs – claiming they are doing more for their country than ‘all the SNP MPs put together’ – as she thanked voters for ousting senior Nationalist Angus Robertson.
A fired-up Mrs May held Miss Davidson’s hand in the air as she gave an impassioned speech at the Scottish Conservative reception in Manchester last night, proclaiming that ‘together we saved the Union’.
Her intervention comes ahead of Scottish Secretary David Mundell’s conference speech today, in which he will warn that the only way to keep the UK together is to make Miss Davidson the next First Minister.
He will say that if Nicola Sturgeon will not rule out another divisive referendum on independence, the Scottish Tory leader will when she takes over the top job.
Hundreds of party members filed in to the Conservative reception to see the Prime Minister and Scottish Tory leader last night, with the pair standing together on the podium.
In a passionate speech, Mrs May said that the change of Tory fortunes in Scotland ‘has been monumental this year’.
She added: ‘I want to say something else about the result that took place at the General Election in Scotland… We didn’t have the overall result we wanted, but together we saved the Union.
‘Those 12 MPs along with David [Mundell] are doing more in the House of Commons to give the voice to Scotland in Westminster than all the SNP MPs put together.
‘All the SNP is interested in is their independence issue. As we’ve said that’s gone away. The SNP in Scotland has got to answer the question of what they are doing. And there is no better woman than Ruth to hold them to account.’
Mr Mundell will today urge the SNP to stop ‘fanning the flames of grievance’. He is expected to say: ‘It’s time Nicola Sturgeon took a fire extinguisher to it [referendum threats] so Scotland can get on with what really matters.
‘If she won’t, we will. No one else. The only way to guarantee the threat of a second independence referendum is swept off the table once and for all is to install Ruth Davidson as First Minister.’
Mr Mundell will also thank voters for returning him to Westminster at this year’s snap election – along with 12 new Scottish MPs.
He will say: ‘The arrival of a dozen new Scottish Conservative MPs at Westminster in June confirmed something Ruth Davidson has been saying for a long time now. Scotland is NOT the SNP.
‘The myth was all too easy for the Nationalists to peddle when they held 56 of Scotland’s 59 seats. But no longer. It was never true and the election proved it.’
Meanwhile, Miss Davidson yesterday launched a passionate plea for the Union – insisting it is ‘remarkable’.
Although claiming that the Government should ‘press on with more devolution’, she said that ‘it’s time for a bit more Union, too.’
Miss Davidson added: ‘More Union right across Britain. More Union in all parts of our Nation – benefiting us all.’
‘Scotland is not the SNP’
INFIGHTING dominated the start of the Tory conference yesterday as Theresa May came under pressure to rein in Boris Johnson.
Her attempt to reach out to younger voters was overshadowed by the Foreign Secretary’s second high-profile intervention on Brexit in a fortnight.
Still weakened by the fallout from her election disaster, the Prime Minister was urged by some in her party yesterday to silence Mr Johnson, or remove him from her Cabinet.
Two senior figures on the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs even told the Mail the party would back her if she decided to sack him.
But another high-profile Conservative, Jacob Rees-Mogg, appeared to back the Foreign Secretary last night. He said he too did not ‘want to see any foot dragging’ over Brexit.
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson appealed for unity and suggested the stand-off between Mrs May and Mr Johnson was a ‘psychodrama’.
Business leaders also demanded an end to the Cabinet squabbling. The British Chambers of Commerce said the Government needed to start showing ‘competence and coherence’ to steer the economy through the departure from the EU.
One of Mrs May’s allies was last night reported to have accused Mr Johnson of posturing and using Brexit to boost his profile.
The Foreign Secretary denied this, telling the Daily Telegraph: ‘If you studied what I said, it was basically government policy.’
Mrs May has previously said no minister is unsackable, but yesterday she laughed nervously and avoided the question during an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show when she was asked about Mr Johnson’s latest intervention.
She insisted she had a Cabinet ‘united in the mission of this govCommittee ernment’. Former Tory party chairman Grant Shapps yesterday said she was ‘not strong enough’ to sack Mr Johnson.
But senior figures on the 1922 said the party was tired of efforts to destabilise Mrs May. ‘She has got the authority to create the government she wants,’ one said. ‘She is in a much stronger position than most people realise. Colleagues have not got much patience for the kind of self-indulgence we have been seeing.’
Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, last night told the BBC’s Westminster Hour programme it was time for ministers to stop ‘squabbling’.
Mr Johnson’s decision to set out four new ‘red lines’ on Brexit on
‘She is in a much stronger position’
the eve of the Conservative Party conference came just a fortnight after he stunned Downing Street by publishing an unauthorised 4,000-word essay setting out his vision for Britain’s strategy.
The Foreign Secretary is said to have told friends that the Prime Minister ‘will be gone in a year’.
In a Channel Four documentary due to be screened last night he also mocked her reliance on former aides Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, saying: ‘That’s modern slavery right there’.
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