DOWNING St’s troubled Union Unit has been scrapped in the wake of continuing disarray as Boris Johnson tries to get a grip on his bid to fight back against the rise in support for Scottish independence and save the 300-year-old Union.

Alister Jack, the Scottish Secretary, insisted “nothing had gone wrong” with the Unit, recently rebranded as the Union Directorate, but argued that it had been “replaced” by a Cabinet Committee chaired by the Prime Minister, which was, in fact, a “step-up”.

Following Mr Johnson’s controversial trip to Scotland last month, criticised as “non-essential” by Nicola Sturgeon given the Covid restrictions, Luke Graham, the former Scottish Conservative MP, who had headed the Unit for nearly a year, was unceremoniously sacked.

Whitehall sources insisted at the time that the Directorate was being boosted with advertisements posted for extra staff.

However, just two weeks later, Mr Graham’s successor, Oliver Lewis, a leading Vote Leave campaigner and an ally of Dominic Cummings, quit after being accused of leaking “unpleasant information” against Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office Minister, a claim he vehemently denied.

No 10 insisted the Directorate was continuing but it has transpired in the last 24 hours that Mr Johnson has scrapped it and put himself, as Minister for the Union, in full charge of the UK Government’s bid to fight back against the rise in support for Scottish independence with 21 consecutive opinion polls showing majority backing for it.

Asked about the fate of the Union Unit, Mr Jack told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland: “This is a very good news story; this is a step-up," confirming it had been replaced by a committee of Cabinet ministers.

“Advisers advise and ministers decide," declared the Secretary of State. "This is a ministerial Cabinet committee, which the PM and the Chancellor of Exchequer will be sitting on along with the Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. It’s very good news that that level of focus on strengthening the UK is at that high level of Government.”

Asked what had gone wrong with the Unit, the Secretary of State replied: “Nothing has gone wrong with it. This is not about people sitting behind the desks. This is about all of the senior advisers in No 10 and the ministers across Whitehall focusing on strengthening the UK.”

The SNP’s Pete Wishart took to Twitter to comment on Mr Jack’s GMS interview on the Union Unit, describing it as “priceless”.