JACOB Rees-Mogg has repeated the Prime Minister’s claim that there is no border between Scotland and England – insisting that the UK is “one country”.
Speaking in the Commons yesterday Boris Johnson criticised Nicola Sturgeon’s failure to rule out imposing quarantine on those entering Scotland from the rest of the UK if public health advice indicated it was the right thing to do – saying there is “no such thing” as the Scottish Border.
READ MORE: First Minister hits out at 'absurd' Boris Johnson Border claims
Last night The National’s fact-checking service found the claim to be false. Scotland’s is recognised and defined legally, politically and geographically in the 1998 Scotland Act, which makes reference to the country’s “border” specifically.
SNP MP for Glasgow North, Patrick Grady, challenged the Leader of the House on the Tory denial of the Border’s existence this morning – asking for a debate on the Scottish Adjacent Waters Boundaries Order of 1999 if they really believe the UK is “one country”.
That order took 6000 square miles of Scottish waters into English jurisdiction before devolution began.
The MP also asked for further details on how local lockdowns can be implemented, particularly if virus-hit Westminster had to be shut off, but was not given an answer.
Rees-Mogg instead replied: “Mr Speaker I never realised that our separatist friends revolved themselves on an Ealing comedy. It seems to have become Passport to Pimlico.
“There are no internal borders within the United Kingdom. It is one country, I am glad to say. And the fact there are – there is a difference between borders and between districts and areas.
“This is self-evident. A border is something that you may stop people crossing. Even I am not suggesting that we make people from Gloucestershire present their passports before coming into Somerset. Passport to Pimlico, the honourable gentleman will remember, was when Pimlico was thought to belong to the Duke of Burgundy or some such and therefore had become an independent state within the United Kingdom.
“Our separatist friend wants to do the same. And insist on passports to Scotland. And Mrs Sturgeon wishes to build a wall. Unfortunately Mrs Sturgeon’s policy isn’t fictional. Many of us with that it were, and the separatists were a bit more fictional but they’re not, they’re here and they bang on about it constantly. But we are still one country and Scotland benefits enormously from being part of the United Kingdom.”
Yesterday Nicola Sturgeon called the denial of the Scottish Border “absurd”. Speaking at her daily briefing, she sought to separate politics from crucial public health advice and slammed those making her Border comments out to be “constitutional”.
The SNP leader said: “If the Prime Minister is questioning that now, I’m not sure what he would say if I pitched up in Newcastle and started to try to implement Scottish Government policies in Newcastle. And see what I’ve just said there? It’s absurd too, which is why we shouldn’t be having these discussions.”
To read the full National fact check disproving the senior Tories’ claims, check out: FACT CHECK: Boris Johnson's bonkers claim about the Scottish Border
And to read The National’s brief history of the Scottish Border, check out: How long has the Scottish/English Border existed for?
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