YOU can’t do to Scotland what you want and get away with it, Nicola Sturgeon has warned the Prime Minister.
The First Minister made the comments as Theresa May heads north of the border for her party’s Scottish conference. Sturgeon said the Prime Minister needed to remember the Tories have no mandate in Scotland.
May is expected to use her speech to the party faithful gathered in Glasgow’s SECC to describe the SNP’s record in government as a “scandal.” May will go on to claim the First Minister is “neglecting” the country’s public services to play the “game” of Scottish independence.
In remarks released ahead of the Prime Minister’s speech, the SNP leader has warned May not to “come to Scotland” and “sermonise about where power should lie” when she has refused to engage with the Scottish Government over Brexit. The Scottish Government’s approach since the EU referendum has been to offer compromise and to seek consensus at every turn – in return the UK Government’s has so far been one of obstinacy and intransigence,” Sturgeon said.
Sturgeon added that the Scottish Government has tried to find compromise and out forward a proposal for “Scotland [to] remain in the European single market even if the rest of the UK leaves.“ “Given that this falls well short of what Scotland actually voted for by a decisive 24-point margin last June, which was to remain in the EU – and the electoral mandate we received last May – these proposals represent significant movement and a substantial concession on our part.
“In response, the UK Government has not only shown no similar willingness to compromise but has in fact hardened its position.”
Sturgeon added: “If the Prime Minister thinks she can come to Scotland and sermonise about where power should lie, in the manner of one of her Tory predecessors, she should remember this: “Her government has no mandate in Scotland, and no democratic basis to take us out of Europe and the single market against our will.
“But increasingly, this Tory Government seems to think it can do what it wants to Scotland and get away with it.”
This will be May’s first speech to the Scottish Tory conference since becoming Prime Minister, and with another referendum on Scottish independence seemingly inevitable, she will seek to reassure the party faithful that she is “confident about the future of our United Kingdom and optimistic about what we can achieve together as a country”.
May is expected to say: “As Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, I am just as concerned that young people in Dundee get a good start in life and receive the education they need to reach their full potential as I am about young people in Doncaster and Dartford.
“I care as much about the dignity and security of older people on both sides of the River Tweed or the Irish Sea.
She is expected to then go on to say: “People in Scotland deserve a First Minister who is focused on their priorities – raising standards in education, taking care of the health service, reforming criminal justice.”
Adding: “The SNP’s neglect and mismanagement of Scottish education has been a scandal.”
Though there is heightened security at the SECC for the conference and the Prime Minister’s speech, there is only a small protest today, with a larger one planned for tomorrow.
Hundreds are expected, with rallies organised by Stand Up To Racism, the Scottish Militant Ninja Turtles, the Scottish Resistance, and others.
Perennial campaigner Sean Clerkin, who will be outside, the conference on both days, says he will pushing the Prime Minister over plans to cap Local Housing Allowance.
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