DOWNING St has knocked back the idea of creating a new Secretary of State for the Constitution as floated by the forthcoming review into strengthening the Union.
Asked if Boris Johnson was in favour of creating such a Cabinet role, his spokesman replied: “We have Secretaries of State for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, who are all doing very important work, delivering for the people of those countries.
“The Prime Minister’s personal commitment is to strengthen the Union and ensuring we level up across every part of the United Kingdom to make sure that everybody can make the most of the talents which they have and the opportunities that are available.”
READ MORE: SNP will have to start putting the case for a ‘hard Scexit’
Asked if a Secretary of State for the Constitution would, therefore, be surplus to requirement, the spokesman added: “The PM has just appointed his new Government and, as I say, Secretaries of State are doing important work.”
The review by former Scotland Office Minister Lord Dunlop was commissioned by Theresa May just weeks before she left Downing St in a bid to see how Whitehall could “strengthen and sustain” the Union. A staunch Unionist herself, it was regarded as a “legacy announcement”.
The issue of the Union is beginning to tax Government brains more, particularly in light of the SNP landslide with UK ministers preparing themselves for a constitutional war of attrition with Nicola Sturgeon and her colleagues throughout this Parliament.
Senior party sources this week told The Herald that the Government had to “up its game” on promoting the Union and that a “Union ethos” had to be fostered across Whitehall.
As reported by The Herald yesterday the Dunlop Review:
*floats the idea of creating a Constitutional Secretary of State;
*refers to the Scottish Secretary having an “enhanced status and voice” within Government;
*talks of the Secretary of State having access to a multi-billion pound fund to create and promote projects in Scotland with special significance and
*recommends replacing the much-derided Joint Ministerial Committee system with a new intergovernmental structure serviced by an independent secretariat to command greater confidence from the devolved administrations.
In the run-up to the election, Mr Johnson styled himself the Minister for the Union with the creation of a Union Unit in Downing St.
READ MORE: Indyref2: Boris Johnson and ministers warned over the Union
While it has been suggested Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office Minister, is set to have a major input into the Unit as yet there has been no detailed mission statement or proposals about the specific work it will do.
The Herald has been told there is at present only one person in the Unit, Elliot Roy, a special advisor, who moved over from the Scotland Office. Luke Graham, the former MP for Ochil and South Perthshire, who lost his seat at the election, has also been linked with the Unit, which ministers want to be “beefed up” and play a key co-ordination role across Whtehall.
The idea of having a Department for the Union is an old one. In his first term in Government Tony Blair commissioned a report on the subject but was told that the idea was a non-starter given the distinct problems of Northern Ireland at the time.
As the political turmoil in the province continues, then this would still present a problem.
Senior Government sources have made clear that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all present their own challenges and trying to create a “one-size-fits-all” solution would not work. Plus, politically, creating an overarching Union Secretary of State could leave the way open for the Government’s opponents to argue that the Scottish Secretary’s role had been down-graded.
“The SNP are masters at creating a grievance; we don’t want to give them an opportunity to create a new one,” said one senior Government insider.
He also noted that there already was a constitutional supremo, the Minister for the Union: Mr Johnson.
The Dunlop Review is said to be on the PM’s desk “in draft form” and will be pored over during the festive break. The expectation is that the full report will be published in January.
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