ENVIRONMENT Secretary Michael Gove has used his Scottish Conservatives conference speech to attack First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for a second independence referendum.
He also admitted that his party’s catastrophic local election results in England are a direct result of the Conservatives’ abject failure to deliver Brexit.
During his speech in Aberdeen, he said that the council elections, which delivered the worst Tory result since 1995, “should remind us that referendum verdicts must be honoured”.
He went on to admit that many of his colleagues had lost their seats “because Parliament has not yet delivered Brexit”.
Gove continued by issuing an appeal to MPs to “respect the referendum result” and back the Prime Minister’s deal, declaring that it is “what democracy demands”.
Turning his attention to the FM’s indyref ambitions, Gove told the crowd, which was estimated to be a few hundred people strong, that Sturgeon was “contemptuous of Scotland’s interests”.
“The idea that what Scotland wants now is another expensive, divisive, investment-freezing, prosperity-draining, uncertainty-generating, family-separating, acrimony-escalating referendum is politically reckless, democratically insulting and just plain wrong,” he said.
Gove also slammed the SNP’s plans to launch a new Scottish currency.
“You’d have a bureau de change at Berwick and you couldn’t use sterling in Stirling. It’s a crazy idea, and Nicola Sturgeon knows it. She didn’t want it to become SNP policy but her party insisted,” he said.
Gove’s speech followed a Q&A session with Stirling MP Stephen Kerr, where he suggested that millions of pounds should be withheld from Holyrood and spent by UK Government ministers.
He is thought to be considering a leadership bid.
In response, Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “When I spoke two weeks ago of the real risk of devolution being forced into reverse by the Tories, I didn’t expect them to be quite so quick to prove me right.
"Not being at the mercy of this nonsense is one of many reasons Scotland needs independence.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel