THE UK Government’s Cabinet Office will be setting up a second headquarters in Glasgow in an effort to strengthen the Union.
Michael Gove, the current Minister for the Cabinet Office, will also be visiting the city next week as part of the plan to reinforce the UK Government’s “commitment” to Scotland.
According to reports in the Financial Times, a letter sent by Alex Chisholm, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, said that at least 500 officials would move to an office in Scotland’s largest city by 2024.
READ MORE: SNP slam Jacob Rees-Mogg for plan to have Westminster MPs sit in Holyrood
One source told FT that the proposal would “bring the engine room of the UK Government to Scotland”.
Glasgow was reportedly chosen over York as it would do more to combat support for independence.
SNP MP Alison Thewliss quipped that “that’s an awful lot of staff for an embassy”.
That's an awful lot of staff for an Embassy. https://t.co/bIe4SjpkS0
— Alison Thewliss (@alisonthewliss) March 12, 2021
The department, which supports the prime minister, has a total of 8500 staff.
Chisholm’s letter says: “As a department with a key responsibility for the Union, it is particularly appropriate that we move to strengthen our presence and commitment in Scotland.”
It is the most recent in a series of moves to decentralise the UK Government, with other ministries planning to move officials to Darlington, Wolverhampton, and Manchester.
It is hoped the moves will inject cash into areas outside London as well as bring different perspectives to policy.
The SNP's depute leader, Keith Brown, said: "The fact Boris Johnson and his Tory colleagues are clearly spending so much time discussing how they can combat support for independence shows they are preparing for a referendum they know is inevitable in the face of a Holyrood majority for one.
“Bluntly, they wouldn’t be spending so much time on the issue and relocating Whitehall staff to Scotland if they thought their Trump-like bid to defy democracy could hold.”
Amy Leversidge, assistant general secretary of the FDA union that represents senior civil servants, backed the Cabinet Office move to Glasgow but told FT that if there was no ministerial presence in the city then all decision-making would continue to be centralised.
READ MORE: Revealed: How the UK Government is preparing to stop an independence referendum
She said: “While the Cabinet Office have confirmed that there will be senior civil servant roles based in Glasgow, they have only committed that ministers will ‘spend regular time’ there. This isn’t good enough.
“There must also be a ministerial presence in Glasgow, otherwise all the decision-making will continue to be in London and this will act like a gravitational pull for the senior civil servants to be pulled back there too.”
The Cabinet Office said: “Decision makers should be close to the people they serve. That’s why we’ve committed to relocating civil service roles out of central London, building on the thousands of civil servants we already have working across the United Kingdom.”
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