DOUGLAS Ross has defended the exclusion of his own party from the top table of Unionist strategy in Downing Street.
News broke of Boris Johnson’s plan to replace the beleaguered Union Unit with a Cabinet committee on Wednesday evening.
However, a representative of Douglas Ross’s Scottish Tories is missing from the committee's all-male membership.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, and unelected former Brexit negotiator and peer David Frost will sit on the committee chaired by the Prime Minister.
They will be joined by the Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, Brandon Lewis, Simon Hart, and Alister Jack respectively.
Ross insisted that the make-up of the committee meant his Scottish Tories would be able to make their voice heard, despite not being allowed to attend.
READ MORE: SNP demand to know how much failed Union Unit cost the taxpayer
He said: “The Union Cabinet Committee is represented by the Prime Minister, the Chancellor, the Cabinet Office Minister and the secretaries of state for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The key departments within the UK Government are all covered.
“As before when the Union Unit existed and going forward with this new committee, I’ll have regular input though Alister [Jack], through the Prime Minister, through all the secretaries of state."
Ross said he would be meeting with Johnson next Tuesday as the Prime Minister is “keen to make sure the open lines of communication that we’ve had through my leadership continue”.
Jack yesterday insisted that although the Union Unit had been replaced, nothing had gone wrong with its functioning. The Scottish Secretary’s claims were in spite of the fact that the unit had lost two leaders in the space of a few weeks.
The Cabinet committee and Union Unit will now be working together, with the committee seemingly controlling the direction of strategy.
Ross insisted that there was still a need for the role his Scottish Tories play.
He said: “It’s very separate to what we’re doing here north of the Border.
“The Prime Minister understands that I'm leader of the party here in Scotland, I’m taking the challenge to the SNP over the next few weeks. It’s my party, my manifesto, my team that are going to the electorate on May 6.”
However, Ross admitted that “you can’t hide that there has been troubles” with the Union Unit after its chief, Vote Leave veteran Oliver Lewis, quit after just two weeks in the post.
He said: “I think the Prime Minister has acted quite decisively to move to this Cabinet committee which has worked well in the Brexit negotiations – it's a similar set-up to the tried and tested method for ensuring throughout government, there’s a central point to all the issues to be articulated, to be discussed.
“I’m sure with the Prime Minister retaining that and with senior members of the Cabinet as committee members, that will work very well going forward.
“It’s quite separate to the campaign we are running up here in Scotland.”
Ross added: “The make-up of this committee is with other UK Government committees.
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“This is an extremely high-level committee within government. But I’ll be feeding into that. The Scottish Conservative voice will effectively be heard as I’m sure the leader of the Welsh Conservatives will also have input.
“There’s a wider remit across Whitehall and across the party and I’m perfectly comfortable about how that will work in tandem with what we are doing here as the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party in taking the fight to the election in just a few weeks' time.”
The SNP have demanded Downing Street reveal how much taxpayer money has been “wasted” on the Union Unit.
The party’s Westminster deputy leader Kirsten Oswald MP said: “This is utterly humiliating for Boris Johnson. The only thing his failed Union Unit has delivered has been a sacking, a resignation and now its reported collapse within a matter of weeks.
“The entire shambolic episode is the perfect analogy for the Tory government’s undemocratic anti-independence stance – crumbling under the first sign of any pressure.”
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