Tories warned ‘brute centralising’ of political power risks ‘aggravating’ Scots

Scottish Deputy First Minister John Swinney issued the warning as he insisted there would be another vote on independence.
Relationships between the Scottish Government and Boris Johnson’s administration are ‘poor’ Deputy First Minister John Swinney said. (Leon Neal/PA)
Katrine Bussey17 November 2021

Boris Johnson has been warned his Government risks “aggravating” Scots with its “assertion of brute centralising political power”.

Scotland’s Depute First Minister John Swinney hit out at the Conservative administration at Westminster over what he said was “sometimes euphemistically called muscular unionism”.

Mr Swinney insisted this approach amounted to nothing more than “Westminster control of Scotland”, claiming Tory ministers had used the Internal Market Act as “a juggernaut to drive its way through the devolved settlement”.

Gordon Brown promised us we would be living in a federal state in the days leading up to the 2014 referendum if we voted No. We’re nowhere near, we’re in a disrespectful state now.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney

The senior SNP politician – who has been in the Scottish Government since his party came to power at Holyrood in 2007 – told an event organised by the Institute for Government that relationships between Mr Johnson’s government at Westminster and Nicola Sturgeon’s administration in Edinburgh were “poor”.

He stated: “I’ve been a government minister now for 14 years, for a very brief period we worked with the Blair government, we then worked with the Brown government, the Cameron government, the May government and now the Johnson government.

“And intergovernmental relations are at their worst in the current context of all that era.”

The Internal Market Act, brought in by Westminster to regulate trade between the four nations of the UK in the wake of Brexit was “used a Trojan horse for an attack on devolution”, Mr Swinney insisted.

The legislation, which allows the UK Government to spend money in Scotland in areas where policy is reserved to Holyrood, was an “explicit statement by the UK Government of its intent to undermine devolution”, he added.

Scottish Deputy First Minister John Swinney insisted there would be another vote on Scottish independence – despite Westminster resisting such a ballot. (Fraser Bremner/Scottish Daily Mail/PA)

He further described the legislation, which was introduced without the consent of the Scottish and Welsh parliaments, as being “the assertion of brute centralising political power in the guise of even-handed market management”.

But Mr Swinney warned UK ministers this approach could backfire on them, as he argued Scots would get another chance to vote on leaving the UK.

He said there “will be” another referendum, as “that decision was taken by the people of Scotland in May of this year” when they elected a majority of independence supporting MSPs to Holyrood.

And he argued the stance being adopted by the UK Government “I think will have the effect of aggravating opinion within Scotland, because the majority of people in Scotland want their democratic institutions to be able to take their decisions, for them to hold those institution to account, and they want those institutions to be respected”.

Mr Swinney stated: “The UK Government is essentially taking a set of actions that are not acting in that spirit, they are appealing to a minority of opinion within Scotland on this question and I think they run the risk of aggravating opinion within Scotland.”

While the 2014 independence vote saw Scots being told they could lead the UK if the voted to stay in the UK, Mr Swinney insisted people north of the border were instead being “disrespected” by Westminster.

He argued: “Gordon Brown promised us we would be living in a federal state in the days leading up to the 2014 referendum if we voted No. We’re nowhere near, we’re in a disrespectful state now.”

The Deputy First Minister told the online audience: “The next referendum on Scottish independence will not be a choice between the status quo and a constitutional unknown.

“There will be no status quo any more – we are in the middle of a dramatic restructuring of our democracy and our economy, whether we like it or not.

“Instead it will be between two competing visions of our future – one of an independent new nation in Europe where the people of Scotland have control over their futures and where their decisions count, and one of a dependent Scotland in a diminished United Kingdom where the people of Scotland’s choices can be ignored and overturned if they don’t suit the priorities of a government they didn’t vote for.”

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