FORMER first minister Henry McLeish has called on all parties in Scotland to defend Holyrood, warning that Boris Johnson has “declared war” on devolution.
The former Scottish Labour leader said the Prime Minister is seeking to “wreck” the 1998 Devolution settlement through the new internal market legislation.
Writing in the Sunday National today, he argued the momentum for increasing powers for Scotland has now stalled.
He said: “Under Boris Johnson dangerous times lie ahead. Much will depend on the performance of the SNP in the May elections and Johnson’s response to the result. It is time for all the parties to show some unity around defending our Parliament and the 1998 settlement.
“Scotland’s future may not be decided for many years, but in the meantime the theme should be, ‘hands off Scotland’.”
A report from the Scottish Government earlier this month set out how devolved powers are being eroded by the UK Internal Market Act, including the UK Government now regularly legislating in devolved policy areas and taking powers to spend in devolved areas.
READ MORE: Henry McLeish: SNP civil war leaving door open for a Tory dismantling of devolution
McLeish described it as “more than a power grab”. He said: “In the spirit of Brexit, ‘taking back control’ is being ruthlessly applied to Scotland.
“Boris Johnson has declared war on the 1998 Devolution settlement. The Prime Minister has scant regard for Scots or Scotland. His attempts to dismantle the very foundations of our devolved government and Parliament are audacious and foolish.
“There is no acknowledgement from him that our disunited kingdom requires serious reform.
“Instead, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are viewed as being out of step, irritating and ungrateful.
“Under this dismal view of the future, Scotland needs to be brought to heel.”
McLeish said Johnson has decided that Scotland must be more “significantly reintegrated” into the Union and is willing to use the “crudest of political methods, tactics, and bribes” to keep Scotland in check.
He went on: “Brandishing the Union Jack, moving civil servant jobs to Glasgow and East Kilbride, more defence work, building tunnels under the sea, expanding the idea of free ports, enterprise zones and direct funding of investment, letting Rees-Mogg loose at the dispatch box hurling insults and declaring Scotland a district, are all part of an elaborate strategy to declassify Scotland as a nation and downgrade it to the status of a region, as it was considered in Whitehall for much of the first half of the 20th century.”
He added: “Let us not forget the idle Tory chat around revisiting the Barnett Formula.”
McLeish said Johnson’s government is trying to “reclaim” Scotland at a time of a “perfect storm” of events in the run-up to the Holyrood elections, and the issue was about the right of Scots to determine their own future, rather than the country’s final constitutional destination.
“Boris Johnson has embarked on a shocking strategy to derail Scotland’s progress and pursue politics with a thuggish set of ideas,” he added. “If sensible reforms of the Union are ignored by this Government or Westminster and if Johnson succeeds in damaging a great experiment in Scotland, then Scots will face a choice between staying, on Boris Johnson’s terms, or leaving the Union.”
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