Boris Johnson heckled as he makes case against
Scottish independence
Not such a warm welcome as UK prime minister visits
Scotland.
By ANDREW
MCDONALD 7/23/20, 8:22 PM CET Updated 7/24/20, 4:53 AM CET
The first
time Boris Johnson visited Scotland as prime minister, he faced a reception so
frosty he left a meeting with the first minister via the back door.
Despite
steering clear of both Scotland's main cities and Nicola Sturgeon during his
visit on Thursday, there was no escaping the boos.
The people
of Orkney, a sparsely populated island with a Liberal Democrat MP, were given
less than 24 hours notice the prime minister was coming, armed with a £50
million funding package for Orkney and other Scottish isles.
If the lack
of notice was designed to deprive nationalists of time to organize, it didn't
appear to have worked. A small band of protesters, many clutching saltire flags
and a few with EU flags, booed and held up placards as Johnson's car moved
through a dreich Orkney to the delight of nationalists.
His
enthusiasm undimmed, Johnson set about his task for the day: strengthen the
union, by reaffirming the benefit of being in one during a crisis.
"The
union is a fantastically strong institution," he told broadcasters.
"It's very, very valuable in terms of the support we've been able to give
to everybody throughout all corners of the U.K."
"We've
had a referendum on breaking up the union a few years ago," Johnson added.
"I think what people really want to see is our whole country coming back
strongly together."
It's an
attack line the Conservatives often return to on Scotland — that the referendum
has happened and people want to move on. Ruth Davidson, the former leader of
the Scottish Conservatives, used the strategy to great effect in 2016 and 2017
elections, first displacing Scottish Labour as the main opposition at Holyrood
and narrowly depriving the Scottish National Party of an outright majority. A
year later, Tory gains in Scotland saved Theresa May's government, as
opposition to a second independence referendum saw the SNP lose more than a
third of their Westminster seats.
The problem
for Johnson this time is that things appear to have changed. The most recent
Scottish independence poll split 54/46 in favor of a Yes vote, and renowned
pollster John Curtice said the Yes side "are narrow favorites" for
the first time ever.
It's that
change that has unsettled Downing Street and moved Johnson to come north this
week — something First Minister Sturgeon gleefully welcomed Thursday morning.
Responding
later on to Johnson's comments to broadcasters, she said the prime minister should
not use the coronavirus pandemic as a "political weapon."
"I
don't think any of us, and I include myself in this, should be trying to use
COVID and the pandemic and the crisis situation we continue to face as some
kind of political campaigning tool," Sturgeon told reporters at her
Thursday coronavirus briefing. "Every leader has a real duty to focus on
doing everything we can to tackle this, and not use it as some kind of
political weapon."
Johnson and
Sturgeon did not arrange to meet during the prime minister's visit.
Authors:
Andrew McDonald
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