Johnson takes the lead on union strategy

Boris Johnson is set to take a leading role in shaping Number 10’s strategy to save the union, amid polls indicating the SNP are on course for an outright majority at May’s Holyrood election.

Downing Street have confirmed a new “union Cabinet committee”, led by the prime minister, will take charge of strategy after the ill-fated “union unit” lost two bosses in three weeks.

As reported earlier this month, the union unit has been folded into a Cabinet Office “union directorate” run by the civil service.

The prime minister’s new Cabinet committee will “build on” the work carried out by Michael Gove’s “union policy implementation committee” formed last year, Number 10 has said.

Mr Gove, along with Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Brexit minister David Frost and the secretaries of state for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will all attend the committee, which will meet “regularly”.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross and the party’s Holyrood leader, Ruth Davidson, will not be invited to attend, but Number 10 said there may be occasions “when others are required at the meeting”.

The SNP’s deputy Westminster leader, Kirsten Oswald, labelled the changes “shambolic”, adding: “The reality is that no amount of rebranding or merging can take away from the fact the Tories are in turmoil and their antiindependence campaign in disarray.”

Scotland Office minister Iain Stewart dismissed suggestions Number 10 was in “disarray” on the union, telling MPs: “I know these sort of staff changes excite a lot of political commentators, but the government’s commitment to the union is undiminished and unchanged.”