SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has said that “whoever wins, Scotland will lose” when it comes to the Tory leadership race.
Speaking prior to the closure of nominations for Boris Johnson’s replacement, Blackford dismissed the “woeful” list of candidates for the next Tory leader as “descending into a rabid race to right” and for “trying to outdo each other in support for a hard Brexit and deep austerity cuts.”
Blackford commented: “This dismal Tory contest is underlining everything that is wrong with Westminster control – and it is making the case for independence.
“Whoever replaces Boris Johnson, Scotland will be stuck with a Tory government we didn’t vote for imposing damaging policies we don’t support.
“Scotland wants a different future to the one being imposed under Westminster control. Brexit has cost our economy billions and Tory cuts are pushing people into poverty – the only way to keep Scotland safe and deliver meaningful change is to become an independent country.”
Blackford’s remarks follow similar comments from SNP MP Mhairi Black, who voiced warnings over the Conservative party’s increasing militancy in The National this week, arguing that as prime minister, Boris Johnson had “kicked out some of the more moderate MPs that used to be in the Tory party”, and as a result it had “drastically veered to the far right under his watch.”
READ MORE: Who made it through to the next round of the Tory leadership contest? See the list
The leadership race thus far has been typified by jostling amongst the candidates to prove their “anti-woke” credentials and controversial appeals to the Tory right, such as Suella Braverman’s recent declaration that there are too many people in the UK who are “choosing to rely on benefits”.
Black added: “The farcical situation when right-wing Tory MPs get to vote to reduce the leadership contenders to the final two, then leave it to out-of-touch Tory members to select the next leader shows how democracy is failing in Westminster.”
Blackford’s contention that the contest aids the case for independence also echoes Scottish Green co-leader Lorna Slater, who wrote in the Edinburgh Evening News yesterday: “Independence will give us the chance to turn the page and put our future in our own hands. It will allow us to do things differently and ensure that we get no more unaccountable and disastrous Tory governments.”
Several of the Tory leadership candidates have already vowed to frustrate First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s goal of a second independence referendum in October 2023, with Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid stating that neither would permit a new vote until the 2030s, Tom Tugendhat refusing to detail the circumstances under which he would ever permit another plebiscite, and Penny Mordaunt – reportedly the favourite amongst Scottish Tories to replace Johnson – commenting: “We cannot allow the SNP to distract and divide us all over again.”
SNP MP Stewart Hosie this week hit back at such remarks, referring to the Scottish Government’s “cast-iron” democratic mandate to hold an independence referendum, saying: “No Trump-like efforts from any politician will deny that democratic reality.”
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