Don’t trust Sturgeon, PM tells her successor
‘You see her in her true colours’
THERESA May last night warned her successor not to trust Nicola Sturgeon amid a growing threat to the Union.
The Prime Minister voiced her fears over the ‘imperilled’ state of the United Kingdom, claiming it faces its biggest threat ever.
In her final speech in Scotland before stepping down as Conservative leader, Mrs May said she had had ‘no hesitation’ in rejecting Miss Sturgeon’s bid for a second independence referendum.
But she warned if her successor does not move quickly to strengthen the Union it could be ‘too late’ to prevent the break-up of the UK.
Mrs May also used her visit to Stirling to attack the First Minister over her refusal to work in ‘good faith’ with the UK Government, saying she had shown her ‘true colours’ in a series of personal digs at the departing Prime Minister.
Mrs May spoke to business leaders at the technology firm CodeBase. She said she feared the Union was facing its biggest threat ever with both Tory leadership contestants, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, committed to leaving the EU by October 31.
Mrs May agreed with Gordon Brown’s recent assessment that the Union is ‘more imperilled now than it has ever been’, adding: ‘He voiced the fears of many. I care passionately about our Union. I certainly do not underestimate the scale of the challenge it faces.’
She said she felt people had ‘taken the Union for granted over the years’, adding: ‘If we do not make realising the full benefits of being a United Kingdom of four proud nations and one united people our priority now, in the future it may be too late.’
Mrs May told the invited audience that it ‘will be for others to decide based on the prevailing circumstances how to respond to separatism’ but said: ‘The principle is clear; the Union will only prosper if it enjoys the support of its people.’
She challenged her successor to do ‘two things urgently’: ‘First, delivering a Brexit that works for the whole United Kingdom – for its individual parts and for the whole. And second, being much more creative and energetic in strengthening the ties that bind us and reinforcing the glue that holds our Union together.’
On the eve of a leadership hustings in Perth, Mrs May warned her successor not to trust Miss Sturgeon. She said: ‘It is telling that during the discussions over legislative consent for the EU Withdrawal Bill, after intense discussions and give and take on both sides, the Welsh Government was willing to making a compromise, whereas the Scottish Government was not.
‘Over the last three years I have learned that while other parties can be relied on to work with the UK Government in good faith to make devolution a success, an SNP Scottish Government will only ever seek to further the agenda of separation.
‘That, I am afraid, is simply a fact of political life in the UK at the moment.
‘That fact puts an additional responsibility on the UK Government. If we do not do all we can to realise the full benefits of the Union, no one else will. If we do not use every policy lever within our reach to strengthen that Union, no one else will.’
Only hours before Mrs May’s speech, Miss Sturgeon attempted to pre-empt it, claiming the Prime Minister’s legacy will be moving Scotland towards independence.
Of her intervention, Mrs May said: ‘I think that, in comments Nicola Sturgeon made about this speech before she actually read or heard it, you see her in her true colours.
‘I think that what the people of Scotland want is to see an SNP Government in Scotland focusing on the things that matter to them day to day. Focusing on the issue of education in Scotland, focusing on the NHS here in Scotland and stopping insisting the only issue is independence.’
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