Boris bid to shore up the Union

Boris Johnson was to last night seek to bolster the British Union by promising a $537m spending spree.

Boris Johnson at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester at the weekend. Picture: AFP

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was last night seeking to bolster the Union by promising a £300 million ($537m) spending spree before a bruising encounter with Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson.

Mr Johnson’s whistlestop tour of the four nations comes with the offer of extra cash to realise the potential “in every corner of the UK”.

However, Ms Davidson declared on the eve of Mr Johnson’s visit to Edinburgh that she would not support a no-deal Brexit. She spoke out as Downing Street embraced no-deal as the most likely outcome.

The pair’s already strained relations have worsened after he overruled her advice for a second time in a week. After Mr Johnson sacked her close ally David Mundell as Scottish secretary, he ignored her plea not to visit Nicola Sturgeon at the Scottish First Minister’s official residence, Bute House. Ms Davidson’s office had told him it would ensure damaging images of him looking like “a visiting foreign dignitary surrounded by a mass of saltires”.

Mr Johnson briefed his cabinet on Sunday on a stripped-down Whitehall structure under which cabinet minister Michael Gove would take day-to-day control of a no-deal countdown.

He has demanded that all members of his government must support his pledge that Britain will leave on October 31. His efforts to ready the country for no-deal was to receive a boost last night when employers’ group the Confederation for British Industry was to call on businesses to face up to the “daunting new reality on Brexit”.

Ms Davidson told the Scottish Mail on Sunday: “I don’t think the government should pursue a no-deal Brexit and if it comes to it, I won’t support it.”

A Scottish Tory source said Mr Johnson, who added “minister of the Union” to the title of Prime Minister, had a lot to prove to the party north of the border. “He has spoken a lot and made lots of pledges but the jury is out until he delivers,” the source said.

“There are bridges to be built between Boris and Ruth.”

Mr Johnson’s team is thought to have offered a “clear the air” meeting tonight with an offer to take soundings on policies that will “push Scotland”.

Consternation has grown within the Scottish party about the appointment of Robin Walker as a junior minister in the Scotland Office. Colin Clark, who defeated Alex Salmond in 2017, has also been appointed to the department but that has not stopped others in the 13-strong group of Scottish MPs feeling passed over.

The £300m funding will come from an expansion of growth deals across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The projects were already on the table, but Mr Johnson is bypassing the usual form of co-ordinating announcements on funding with devolved administrations. He is planning to open talks with Ms Sturgeon and Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford.

The Times