UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing backlash from across the political spectrum after reportedly commenting that devolution had been a “disaster” for Scotland and former PM Tony Blair’s “biggest mistake.”
Johnson allegedly blasted the furthering of Scotland’s autonomy in the 1990s during a Monday virtual meeting of Conservative MPs. Downing Street has not denied that he made the comment, with housing secretary Robert Jenrick only clarifying that the PM was apparently speaking about the issue of “separatism and nationalism” in the form of the Scottish National Party (SNP).
Both comments understandably provoked some harsh response from northern politicians. Scotland’s First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon tweeted that Tories were “a threat to the powers of the Scottish Parliament” and again called for the nation’s independence from the UK.
Glasgow Labour MP Anas Sarwar also took to Twitter with a retort to the PM, saying, “Boris Johnson has been a disaster, not devolution.” Sarwar accused the Tory leader of sowing division in the UK “in the midst of a pandemic, when people’s lives & livelihoods are at risk.”
Johnson’s supposedly anti-separatist comment was deemed to be separatist itself, leaving “no alternative to Scottish independence,” Labour peer Andrew Adonis tweeted. SNP MP Philippa Whitford said that removing “middle way” devolution would force Scots to choose between control by Westminster and full independence. “Increasingly, Scots are choosing the latter,” she wrote.
Others zeroed in on the odd notion that devolution – voted-for by 74 percent of Scots in 1997 – was Blair’s “biggest mistake,” conveniently omitting the 2003 invasion of Iraq from the list of his greatest misdeeds.
“Apparently, Boris Johnson thinks devolution was Tony Blair's biggest mistake,” tweeted author Jon Courtenay Grimwood, adding, “There's a heavily destabilised area of the Middle East that might disagree”.
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