PMQs: Boris Johnson says ‘no one will stop him’ visiting Scotland

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Lord Dunlop spoke out as he made the case for reform of the union between the different nations of the UK. The Conservative peer was a Scottish Office minister, an adviser to David Cameron as well as being commissioned by Theresa May to undertake a key review into the future of the UK.

Lord Dunlop’s review has been lying on the Prime Minister’s desk waiting to be signed off, Express.co.uk understands.

A Whitehall source said last night: “The review will be very important in shaping the future of the Union.”

Nicola Sturgeon has been pushing for a second independence vote and increased her calls after the UK voted to leave the European Union and Scotland voted to stay.

After 20 opinion polls, support for Scottish independence sits at 55 percent on average a majority in favour of leaving the United Kingdom.

But speaking today, Mr Dunlop said: “For the UK Government to reject a demand to hold any time soon another referendum on Scottish independence is not, as Nicola Sturgeon would have it, ‘a denial of democracy’ – it’s plain common sense and the responsible thing to do.”

To boost the case for the UK, he said he had recommended Prime Minister Boris Johnson set up a new co-operation fund, which would promote greater joint working between the UK and the devolved governments.

Taking aim at First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on independence, he added: “It’s hard to believe in these early weeks of 2021 when the country is grappling with an unprecedented national health and economic crisis, that anyone could contemplate willingly throwing into the mix a constitutional crisis.

“Issuing a clarion call to break apart, when it could not be clearer we need to pull together.

“Yet that appears to be the course on which the SNP Government in Edinburgh is set with its 11-point plan for independence.”

Lord Dunlop also took an indirect aim at Deputy First Minister John Swinney who suggested a second Scottish independence vote was a crucial part of economic recovery from COVID-19.

He questioned: “Since 2014 the economic and other public policy fundamentals have become even more difficult for those making the case for independence.

“How can independence be the answer to Covid when credible responses to the fundamental questions raised during the last independence referendum – on currency, funding for public services, borders and trade within the UK have never been provided?

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“It’s clear though that simply explaining to people in Scotland why now is not the time for another independence referendum isn’t a sufficient or sustainable long-term strategy for supporters of the Union.”

Lord Dunlop added that while devolution had developed over the last two decades, there had been “little equivalent development” of the arrangements for inter-governmental relations.

The peer said reform in this area is “urgently required as it is part of the essential glue that binds together the United Kingdom”, calling for an enhanced Intergovernmental Council.

He stressed the need for greater cooperation, not just between Westminster and the devolved administrations, but also between central and local government.

He stressed: “Working together at a time of crisis should be a no-brainer – that’s a natural human instinct, even if it’s against the deeply ingrained political instincts of SNP leaders.”

As well as calling for a cooperation fund, the Conservative politician said his Dunlop Review had proposed a second fund be established that would “incentivise Whitehall departments to identify and bring forward Union-enhancing projects in reserved areas”.

His comments came in a new paper marking the new initiative by the Policy Exchange think tank, with the Future of the Union project being led by Tory MSP and constitutional law expert Prof Adam Tomkins MSP and Eddie Barnes, who was an adviser to Ruth Davidson when she was Scottish Conservative leader.

In response, an SNP spokeswoman told Express.co.uk: “Trying to defy the results of free and fair elections is very far from being the ‘responsible thing to do’ – it would be a democratic outrage which would not stand, just as it failed for Donald Trump.”

She added: “Lord Dunlop is the man reputed to have asked Margaret Thatcher to foist the poll tax on Scotland before any other part of the UK, so it is perhaps no surprise that he is behind this nonsense.

“It is the Scottish people who will decide upon the future of Scotland – not a Tory government at Westminster led by the likes of Boris Johnson.”

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