DOUGLAS Ross has repeatedly refused to confirm that Boris Johnson will “say no” to a second Scottish independence referendum.
Speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland (GMS), the Scottish Conservative leader also declined to say that he supported the principles of the Smith Commission.
SNP depute leader Keith Brown has warned that the Tories are gearing up to “betray” the promises made by the commission, including that there is nothing to prevent Scotland becoming independent “should the people of Scotland so choose”.
READ MORE: Tories accused of trying to rip up the Smith Commission with indyref2 block
Asked about whether Boris Johnson would refuse to grant a Section 30 order allowing Scotland to hold an independence referendum, Ross said: “Let’s be clear the SNP want to hold another referendum at every opportunity. It should be a surprise to people as we’re coming through the biggest pandemic we’ve seen in our lives.”
He went on: “The fact that the SNP would consider having a referendum this year, that’s what their leader at Westminster has suggested, they put £600,000 of their own party funds aside to fight a referendum this year, that’s the type of division that we just don’t need, the distraction from the task at hand which must be our recovery from the pandemic and rebuilding after Covid.”
Asked again if Boris Johnson would say no to a referendum, Ross said that was “not the problem”.
He said the SNP plan to hold a “wildcat illegal referendum”, but was again pressed on what Boris Johnson might do.
The BBC host pointed to a “conundrum”, asking why Scots should vote Tory in the upcoming May elections in order to block indyref2 if Boris Johnson would do so regardless of the result.
Ross denied there was no case for people to vote for his party, claiming it was their success in preventing an SNP majority in 2016 which had prevented the party calling for indyref2 after that election.
He was then asked whether he stoody by what the Smith Commission had said, namely that “nothing in this report prevents Scotland becoming an independent country in the future should the people of Scotland so choose”.
Ross said: “The Smith Commission said an awful lot of things … and what we’re seeing in opinion poll after opinion poll is the people of Scotland choosing not to prioritise separation over our recovery.”
Pressed again to say if he agreed with the Smith Commission’s statement on independence, Ross again said it had looked at “a number of issues”.
The host said he was asking “specifically, about that specific section” in the commission report, to which Ross replied: “I don’t believe the people of Scotland will so choose more divisive politics and constitutional wrangling when we should be fighting for jobs, protecting livelihoods, supporting businesses as we come out of the Covid pandemic that has done so much damage across Scotland and the whole of the UK.”
The Tory leader’s reply echoed Boris Johnson’s arguments made on Sunday, in which he avoided saying he would deny Scotland the power to hold a referendum, instead arguing that now is not the time.
The line is likely to become the Tories’ stock response to calls for indyref2, after Jacob Rees-Mogg warned his party there was a danger to “stubbornly opposing” the prospect of a vote.
READ MORE: Jacob Rees-Mogg warns Tories of risk of 'stubbornly opposing' indyref2
Yesterday, a Panelbase poll for the Sunday Times found that 55% of voters in Scotland want to see a post-pandemic referendum within five years.
Appearing on GMS, Ross also commented on the police’s handling of the Sarah Everard vigil in London over the weekend. The Tory leader said the scenes had been “shocking” and “unacceptable”, adding that no-one could have seen the videos and photographs of the incident and not be “appalled”.
However, he also said that we should wait for the results of the report ordered by Priti Patel before making judgments about whether Cressida Dick, the head of London’s Metropolitan Police, should resign.
Ross said politicians “across England” had come out in support of the police chief. Though the LibDems have called for her to “consider” her position, Labour have not done the same, saying whether Dick “stays or goes doesn’t make women in this country more safe”.
Ross’s Scottish Conservatives came under heavy fire recently for calling for the resignation of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon before she had given evidence to Holyrood’s harassment complaints committee.
The Tory calls for the First Minister to step down also pre-empted the results of the committee’s report, and a separate independent investigation into whether Sturgeon breached the ministerial code being conducted by James Hamilton.
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