BORIS Johnson has been accused of delivering a second snub to Ruth Davidson’s Tories by appointing an English MP as a Scotland Office minister.
The Prime Minister passed over 12 Scottish Conservative MPs to give the role to Robin Walker, the MP for Worcester, who will also double as a Northern Ireland minister.
A huge honour to be made Minister for the union working with @BorisJohnson @ScotSecofState & @NIOgov - our precious union deserves to thrive through brexit & beyond. I will work with colleagues all across the UK to ensure that it does
— Robin Walker MP (@WalkerWorcester) July 26, 2019
Those apparently snubbed by Mr Johnson include his Tory leadership campaign manager in Scotland, Ross Thomson, the MP for Aberdeen South.
A Downing Street source said Mr Walker would be an additional appointment at the Scotland Office, strengthening the government's commitment to the Union.
Mr Johnson is expected to appoint a second junior Scotland Office minister this weekend, with Angus MP Kirstene Hair tipped for the job.
The SNP said the decision was “extraordinary” and further humiliation for Ms Davidson.
It comes just two days after Mr Johnson ignored the Scottish Conservative leader’s appeals to keep David Mundell as Scottish Secretary.
The PM appointed Dumfries & Galloway MP Alister Jack to the role instead.
READ MORE: New Scottish Secretary: I'm a 'hunting, shooting, fishing toff'
Mr Walker, 41, the Oxford-educated son of the Tory peer Lord Peter Walker, was previously a junior Brexit minister.
His father was also previously the MP for Worcester.
Mr Walker effectively replaces Lord Ian Duncan, who had been the junior Scotland Office minister to Mr Mundell and a Northern Ireland minister, and has now been made a junior business and Northern Ireland minister.
SNP MP Pete Wishart said: “The fact that all the Scottish MPs have apparently been passed over in this reshuffle tells you everything about Boris Johnson’s assessment of them.
“It’s a slap in the face for Ruth Davidson ahead of her meeting with the Prime Minister next week.”
READ MORE: SNP say Ruth Davidson ‘humiliated’ after David Mundell sacked against her advice
A Whitehall source said the important thing about Mr Walker was not his constituency, but that he was “very good”.
Mr Walker held the nations brief in the Department for Exiting the European Union and has appeared before a number of Holyrood committees and taken part the Joint Ministerial Committee on Europe with SNP ministers.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel