Welsh Secretary insists UK‘better together’

SCOTTISH independence would lead to trade barriers being erected against the rest of the UK and a rejection of centuries of shared values, success and endeavour, David Jones, the Welsh Secretary, has insisted.

Speaking about Wales in the Union at Cardiff University, Mr Jones touched upon the impact Scottish independence could have on the rest of the UK, saying a vote for it would lead to “permanent separation; there would be no going back”.

He said: “It is a decision on whether Scotland should end over three centuries of history, shared endeavour and success. Whether Scotland should erect barriers against its most important trading partner. And whether Scotland should turn its back on the shared values and interdependence of the UK’s family of nations.”

Devolution, he explained, had enabled Scots to take their own decisions about health, education and transport and, like Wales, to benefit from two legislatures and two governments working in its interests.

He said: “Devolution has also provided the flexibility to evolve and adapt to changing circumstances in both nations; a flexibility that Scotland would lose with independence.”