A CANDIDATE in the contest to become the next leader of the LibDems has suggested the Vow made to voters in Scotland ahead of the 2014 independence referendum has not been fulfilled.
Sir Edward Davey indicated “dev max” proposals – promised by his party leader Nick Clegg, as well as Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Gordon Brown in 2014 – had not been kept.
In a newspaper interview published yesterday Davey was pressed on what greater devolution would look like.
He said: “I would work with the Scottish Liberal Democrats and wider Scottish politics to get that final settlement and take max devolution type proposals further forward, it was promised in the Scottish independence referendum and we have got to make sure that that agenda is fully delivered.”
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Davey also suggested he would move to block a second independence referendum were his party to hold the balance of power.
“Lib Dems should always be prepared to work across parties, but there are some red lines,” he said.
“I would not work with a Brexit Conservative party ... I cannot work with a very left-wing, Brexit-loving Jeremy Corbyn Labour Party. And I wouldn’t sacrifice the unity of my country,” he told the Press and Journal.
He added he would be in favour of advancing “devo max” proposals. “I very much believe in a federal Britain and having huge devolution in Scotland, always have, always will,” Davey said. “I’m very much in favour of Scotland having the powers that it needs.”
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He also likened hardline Tory Brexiteer Boris Johnson with the SNP – despite the two being on different sides in their stance on EU membership with the SNP strongly in favour of remaining in the EU.
Davey said: “I think the right-wing Tory Brexiteers are undermining the United Kingdom in a dramatic way. I utterly reject what people like Boris Johnson stand for. I think nationalism in its populist sense, which you see from the Brexiteers and the Farages, you see echoes of that in Scotland which seeks to break up the country that I love.”
His fellow contender for the leadership role Jo Swinson has also likened Boris Johnson and the SNP. She has said: “SNP nationalism is trying to break up the UK and with Boris Johnson you’ve got nationalism and populism trying to drag us out of the EU and drag us out in an extreme way in a sort of no-deal scenario.
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