Former Scots Tory MP accuses party leaders of failing Scotland
A FORMER Conservative MP has accused Boris Johnson and his ministers of not being fully focused on delivering for Scotland and said they need a “wake-up call”.
Kirstene Hair, former MP for Angus and now senior advisor to Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, acknowledged that her party was not doing enough to make sure Scots feel as though the UK government was “delivering for them”.
In a panel discussion for the Policy Exchange on One Nation Conservatism, Ms Hair said “errors” such as the furlough scheme extension debacle as well as the rising support for independence showed the need for a “reset” of relations between Scotland and Westminster.
She also described herself and her boss Douglas Ross as “frustrated unionists”, repeating that unionism should be “part of the DNA” of the Conservative party, but it is not always demonstrated.
The remarks come ahead of the Scottish Conservatives conference this weekend, where Mr Ross is predicted to emphasise the differences between the Scottish Conservatives and the UK party, The Herald understands.
The Scottish Tory leader and MP for Moray has already tried to show his separation from Boris Johnson and the Westminster “elite”, after resigning from his junior minister role in the wake of the Dominic Cummings Durham scandal.
Mr Ross, who is hoping to leave Westminster in May and take up a seat in Holyrood, said he was unable to justify the behaviour of Mr Cummings to his constituents.
The now-axed adviser drove to Durham while experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus, prompting Mr Ross to step down as a junior Scotland office minister.
Mr Ross also defied the Tory whip and voted for amendments on food standards and quality in the
Agriculture Bill which went through the Commons last month.
Ms Hair said: “We are not ensuring that people in communities across Scotland are feeling that the UK Government is delivering for them. And that is the direct responsibility of ministers within the UK Government, but also of the party and party members.”
Asked if she thought a reset was needed on Scotland by Westminster, Ms Hair said: “You do need a reset when the status quo isn’t working, and that is clearly the case.”
She explained: “Look at the furlough scheme – a really good recent example where the UK Government decided that the scheme would be rolled out for England in the period that England was in lockdown.
“That’s not a unionist policy. “Criticising UK Government ministers directly, she added: “That was a decision that was taken without looking at the whole United Kingdom and the whole picture of the United Kingdom, and it caused a real issue for the Government and it took them a number of days and a lot of bad headlines, particularly in Scotland, to get them back on track.
“If you have the sort of insight, if you have ministers that were 100 per cent focused on delivering for every single part of the United Kingdom, we wouldn’t have come up against that.
“That’s where this wake-up call is required because we shouldn’t be making errors like that. We should be ensuring that every policy, before it is announced, does deliver for every community across the United Kingdom, and does not support one at a disadvantage of another.”
Ms Hair, who was an MP between 2017 and 2019, before losing her seat to the SNP’S Dave Doogan last December, said that the “rise in nationalism” has been happening in Scotland “over a significant period of time” and “over successive governments”, as many administrations have based their investment and policy around London and the South East of England.
She added that the current government had to “rise to the challenge” of beating the SNP, or face a “downwards spiral”.
She said: “The UK Government needs to take stock of what they’re doing and re-evaluate, and really show people in Scotland the importance of the UK Government to them.
“Because if you don’t do that, you’re just heading in this downward spiral. We are fighting against a Nationalist government in Scotland, and they need to rise to that challenge.”