BORIS Johnson will make his first Scottish visit in more than six months this week as the pro-Union side up their efforts, it has been reported.
The Prime Minister is once again keen to spend more time in Scotland after avoiding the country altogether during the Holyrood election, according to The Telegraph.
The Tory leader’s last visit to Scotland came at the end of January – despite there being strict lockdown rules in place. Johnson flew from London to Scotland while only essential travel was permitted, and visited a Lighthouse Laboratory in an effort to show the Union’s strength during the pandemic.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon invites Boris Johnson to face-to-face talks in Bute House
He ignored First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s warning that a stay-at-home lockdown was in place. Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove defended Johnson’s trip, arguing it was “important” for him to hear from frontline workers during the pandemic.
Johnson was then supposed to travel to Scotland to help the Scottish Conservatives campaign for the May Holyrood election. He had pledged just months earlier that “wild horses” would not stop him from travelling north to fight for the Union.
But in April plans for the Prime Minister to visit Scotland were dropped, suggesting the Scottish Conservatives feared his toxic ratings north of the Border would hurt their election efforts.
READ MORE: UK Government will agree to indyref2 if it is 'settled will' of Scots, Michael Gove says
Last year Johnson travelled to Scotland twice in the summer as independence support reached records highs of 58% in the polls. His trips – to Orkney, Moray and Applecross on a staycation – did not weaken Yes support at the time.
The SNP’s longest serving MP Pete Wishart has joked that Johnson was the Yes campaign’s “greatest recruiting sergeant” as independence support seemed to increase when he travelled to Scotland.
Support for independence and support for the Union have been split roughly 50/50 in opinion polls for several months now. However with a pro-independence majority in Holyrood and the SNP conference to be held in the coming weeks, senior UK Government figures appear keen to bring their pro-Union message to Scotland.
Michael Gove and Rishi Sunak are among those to have visited in recent weeks.
Gove indicated a change of tone for his party yesterday, telling the Sunday Mail that the UK Government wouldn’t stand in the way of an independence referendum if it is the “settled will” of voters.
Westminster has repeatedly rejected requests from the Scottish Government for a Section 30 order to hold another vote but the Cabinet Office minister said if the public desire a second referendum, “one would occur”.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford MP hit back, saying: “It should not be news that the Tories are finally waking up to the fact that the people of Scotland have expressed their democratic wishes in an election that they want their future to be put into their hands.”
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