British leadership candidates against new Scottish independence push
By Andrew MacAskill and Sachin Ravikumar
LONDON (Reuters) – The 2 candidates battling to be Britain’s subsequent prime minister vied to current themselves as defenders of Scotland’s place in the UK on Tuesday, promising extra scrutiny of Scotland’s authorities to undermine a brand new push for independence.
The Scottish Nationwide Social gathering (SNP), which heads Scotland’s semi-autonomous authorities, desires to carry a second independence referendum subsequent 12 months, which may rip aside the world’s fifth-biggest economic system.
The bonds holding collectively the 4 nations that make up the UK — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Eire — have been severely strained during the last six years by Brexit and the federal government’s dealing with of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Liz Truss, the overseas minister and frontrunner within the management race, and Rishi Sunak, a former finance minister, set out their insurance policies for Scotland as they appeared on the solely Conservative Social gathering hustings within the nation on Tuesday.
The 2 candidates competing to exchange Prime Minister Boris Johnson need extra give attention to the Scottish authorities’s file on well being and schooling. Scotland has the very best drug deaths in Europe and two thirds of the inhabitants is both overweight or chubby, whereas a assume tank report final 12 months mentioned its schooling system is the weakest in the UK.
On the hustings in Scotland, each Sunak and Truss dominated out granting one other independence referendum in the event that they develop into prime minister, saying the difficulty was settled when the final one was held eight years in the past.
“To me, we’re not simply neighbours, we’re household. And I’ll by no means ever let our household be break up up,” Truss instructed Conservative get together members.
Nevertheless, a couple of quarter of Scots are prone to help independence no matter which Conservative candidate wins, in accordance with an opinion ballot revealed by Survation and Diffley Partnerships.
The SNP mentioned Scotland loses irrespective of who wins the competition, and attacked the British authorities’s failure to take care of the worst cost-of-living disaster in many years.
The true worth of common British employees’ pay fell on the quickest fee since at the least 2001, the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics mentioned on Tuesday, as inflation outstripped wage will increase.
Scotland, which has a inhabitants of round 5.5 million, rejected independence in 2014. However its authorities says Britain’s departure from the European Union, which was opposed by most Scots, means the query should be put to a second vote.
Earlier, Truss promised to present parliamentary privilege to members of the Scottish parliament to permit extra scrutiny of the federal government, and mentioned she would push a commerce take care of India to finish longstanding 150% tariffs on Scotch whisky, the nation’s largest single product export.
Sunak has mentioned if he turns into prime minister, he would order senior Scottish authorities officers to attend annual British parliament committee hearings and guarantee information on efficiency of Scottish public companies was in line with numbers revealed for England and Wales.
On Tuesday, he dominated out freezing a cap on power costs regardless of calls from the opposition Labour get together for such a transfer to assist struggling households with hovering payments.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Sachin Ravikumar; Enhancing by Nick Macfie and Josie Kao)
