Tory hopefuls dismiss new Scot independence vote

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have in the Scottish city of Perth reiterated their opposition to another referendum.

Scots make their feeling known in Perth. Picture: Getty Images

The two Tory candidates vying to become Britain’s next prime minister have reiterated their opposition to another referendum on Scottish independence as they held their only campaign hustings event there.

Frontrunner Liz Truss vowed overnight on Tuesday that she would “not allow” a second vote within a decade in Scotland over whether it remained within the UK, while Rishi Sunak said he could not “imagine circumstances” in which he would grant one.

Scots in 2014 voted narrowly against leaving the UK but First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party argues that Brexit has transformed the constitutional debate, and wants to hold a second plebiscite in October 2023. The Supreme Court in London plans to hold hearings on Oct­ober 11-12 on whether that would be legal without approval from the UK government, which has so far declined to permit another vote.

“If I am elected prime minister, I will not allow another independence referendum,” Ms Truss told Conservative members at the hustings event in Perth to loud cheers. “We’re not just neighbours, we’re family; I will never, ever let our family be split up.”

Opinion polls show voters in Scotland near evenly divided over the issue.

SNP MP Kirsten Oswald said Tuesday’s hustings had been “depressing watching” for people in Scotland, arguing the candidates had “repeatedly attempted to tell us tonight what Scotland wants”.

Also on Tuesday, it emerged that Ms Truss – the favourite in polls to become prime minister next month – had previously suggested Britons lacked “skill and application” and needed to work harder. In an embarrassing leaked audio recording, which dates from her time as a senior minister in Treasury between 2017 and 2019, Ms Truss said workers’ “mindset and attitude” were partly to blame for the UK’s relatively poor productivity. “It’s working culture basically,” she said in the audio, obtained by the Guardian, adding that British workers needed “more graft”.

“If you go to China, it’s quite different, I can assure you. There’s a fundamental issue of British working culture … I don’t think people are that keen to change.”

Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set stand down on September 5, when either Ms Truss or Mr Sunak is declared the winner of the leadership contest. The victor will take charge the following day. The Tories’ roughly 200,000-strong membership has already started voting.

The remarks by Ms Truss echo arguments made in a 2012 book she co-wrote, Britannia Unchained, in which British workers were described as among the “worst idlers in the world”.

In the leaked audio, Ms Truss – who backed remaining in the EU during the 2016 referendum before becoming a Brexit supporter – appeared to suggest the bloc and migration were unfairly criticised.

“We say it’s all Europe that’s causing these problems. It’s all ‘it’s migrants that’s causing problems’. But actually what needs to happen is, you know, a bit more graft,” she said, with a laugh, before adding “it’s not a popular message”.

A Truss campaign source branded the leaked comments “half-a-decade-old” and lacking “context”, while acknowledging that Britain did “need to boost productivity”. “As prime minister, Liz will deliver an economy that is high-wage, high-growth and low-tax,” the source added.

AFP