International Desk: Theresa May has signalled a tougher line on Scottish demands for greater devolution after Brexit, laying down a clear challenge to Nicola Sturgeon to call another independence referendum.
The prime minister told the Scottish Conservative party she would fight against any further decentralisation of power which meant the UK became “a looser and weaker union”.
“We cannot allow our United Kingdom to drift apart,” she said.
In a marked escalation of her attacks on the first minister’s demand for greater autonomy for the Scottish parliament after Brexit, May said there would be a strict limit to any extra powers and spending.
“We must avoid any unintended consequences for the coherence and integrity of a devolved United Kingdom as a result of our leaving the EU,” May told the Scottish Tory conference in Glasgow on Friday.
The prime minister’s stance will be read by Sturgeon and the Scottish National party as an open challenge to call the threatened second referendum on independence, suggesting the Tories are confident they can win.
Despite the SNP’s grip on power in Scotland, Downing Street believes Sturgeon is in a weak position on independence.
About 35% of Scottish voters support a new referendum before Brexit and, despite months of escalating rhetoric by Sturgeon, support for independence still sits at 45%, below the majority she has previously insisted she needs before calling a fresh poll.
May said her central goal was to protect “the deep and fundamental strengths” of the union. “Ours is not a marriage of convenience, or a fair-weather friendship, but a true and enduring union, tested in adversity and found to be true.”
She implied the entire devolution settlement of 1998, which set up the Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly, was now up for renegotiation, risking a row with the Scottish government.
Angus Robertson, the SNP’s deputy leader, said the prime minister’s speech was surreal. “Theresa May is guilty of mind-boggling hypocrisy – it is her government’s constitutional obsession with a hard Brexit which is directly threatening Scottish jobs and livelihoods.
“In those circumstances, we have a duty to stand up for Scotland, and to have a plan in place to protect our vital national interests. And the Scottish government has a cast-iron democratic mandate for an independence referendum if that is the chosen route to protect those interests.”
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May’s stance also signalled a widening gulf between the pro-UK parties over new powers for the Scottish parliament, with Scottish Labour and the Liberal Democrats calling for a federal UK.
The prime minister said the original devolution arrangements were founded on membership of the EU. That meant arrangements for agricultural funding and fisheries policies designed for the EU were no longer relevant, suggesting the UK government would seek centralised control over spending in those areas.
“The UK devolution settlements were designed in 1998 without any thought of a potential Brexit,” she said. “The essential common standards which underpin the operation of a single market were provided at the European level.
“As we bring powers and control back to the United Kingdom, we must ensure that right powers sit at the right level to ensure our United Kingdom can operate effectively and in the interests of all of its citizens, including people in Scotland.”
New powers for Holyrood would be offered but would be limited by that overarching priority. “As I have made clear repeatedly, no decisions currently taken by the Scottish parliament will be removed from them.
“While the SNP propose that decision-making should remain in Brussels, we will use the opportunity of Brexit to ensure that more decisions are devolved back into the hands of the Scottish people.”
Asked if May was challenging Sturgeon to stage a referendum, Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, said: “Nicola Sturgeon has pulled every lever and tried every single way to weaponise Brexit, to try to split up the union. We’re saying that public opinion hasn’t moved [on independence] and the public don’t want it. I for one am going to fight it every step of the way.”
David Mundell, the Scotland secretary, said the UK government would insist on formal negotiations to agree the date and wording of any referendum. He said it would need to be along the same lines as the Edinburgh agreement in October 2012, signed by the then prime minister, David Cameron, and the former first minister Alex Salmond.
Speaking on the BBC’s Daily Politics show, Mundell said the UK government was adamant there was no case for a referendum. “We know what the process is for a referendum. There would have to be the equivalent of the previous Edinburgh agreement, but that position isn’t on the table.. But [Sturgeon] has not made a formal request to the UK government.”
