MICHAEL Gove has told the Conservative party conference his government "will never allow the break up" of the UK.
The Cabinet minister made the claim as he launched a two-pronged attack on the SNP and the Labour Party on the second day of the in-person event in Manchester.
"The UK is a multi-national, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural success story," he told delegates.
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"We have so much of what we can be so proud of across this United Kingdom. But on the one side we have the separatists, the Scottish nationalist party who want to break up this family of nations. And then on the other side we have the militant left who want us to denigrate our past and divide us in the future. Well, let the message go out from this hall. This party and this government will never allow that to happen."
He added: "This country, this kingdom is united in pride. We are stronger together."
The mis-naming of the SNP – the Scottish National Party – has been used deliberately by Boris Johnson at PMQs, where he has been reprimanded by the Speaker over the error.
The move shows disrespect to the party and had been repeatedly complained about by the SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford.
Earlier this year it emerged a former Downing Street aide Oliver Lewis had told Johnson to refer to the Scottish National Party as “the Scottish nationalist party” at PMQs.
“Oliver’s view is that there is a lot we can do to discombobulate the SNP,” a friend of Lewis’s told a Sunday newspaper in February. “The nationalist thing has diverted them into bickering about how nationalist they are.”
During his speech, Gove, who is in charge of the PM's levelling up agenda insisted levelling up is not a “left-wing idea” and is about helping people “live their best life”.
The Communities Secretary highlighted the work of former Tory prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and Margaret Thatcher, before telling the party’s conference: “Never let anyone claim that levelling up and wanting all our children to grow tall is a left-wing idea.
“The left want to keep people in their place so that minorities can be patronised, the country can be polarised and ambition is paralysed.
“We want everyone to have the chance to choose their own future, to own their own home, to walk the streets in safety and to live their best life.”
Abba’s Dancing Queen was played out in the auditorium before Gove arrived on stage after Gove was filmed dancing at a nightclub in Aberdeen in the summer.
He opened by joking: “Here we are – bright lights, great atmosphere, enthusiastic young people. It reminds me of my last night out on the town in Aberdeen – dance like nobody’s watching, they say. Well I did, but they were watching.”
Responding to Gove's speech, the SNP's depute Westminister leader Kirsten Oswald hit out at the Conservative Government's £20 a week cut to Universal Credit, which is due to come into force this Wednesday.
“Michael Gove says he wants to ‘raise living standards’, ‘improve public services’ and ‘give people the resources necessary’ to enhance their community as part of this levelling up agenda - two days before his government cuts the incomes of six million people by £1040, four days after it prematurely ended the furlough scheme risking a rise in unemployment, and just weeks after announcing a regressive tax hike that will hit low-income families hardest," she said.
“If the consequences weren’t so dire you might laugh at the madness of it all.
“This is on top of presiding over one of the lowest state pensions in the world - and under this Tory government the UK has the worst poverty and inequality levels in North West Europe.
“The Tories at Westminster also continue to invest less per head in the NHS than Scotland and refuse to follow Scotland’s lead on scrapping prescription charges.”
She added: "It is vital that Scotland has the full powers of independence to tackle inequality and poverty without Westminster dragging our efforts backwards, and to decide our own future. It is for the people of Scotland to decide what that will be and no-one else."
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