A FORMER Conservative MP has accused Boris Johnson and his ministers of not being fully focussed on delivering for Scotland and said they need a “wakeup call”.
Kirstene Hair, former MP for Angus and now senior advisor to Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, acknowledged that her party was not doing enough to make sure Scots feel as though the UK government was “delivering for them”.
In a panel discussion for the Policy Exchange on One Nation Conservatism today, Ms Hair said “errors” such as the furlough scheme extension debacle as well as the rising support for independence showed the need for a “reset” and a “wakeup call” for Westminster chiefs.
She also described herself and her boss Douglas Ross as "frustrated unionists".
It comes ahead of the Scottish Conservatives conference this weekend, where Mr Ross is predicted to emphasise the differences between the Scottish Conservatives and the UK party, the Herald understands.
The Scottish Tory leader and MP for Moray has already tried to show his separation from Boris Johnson and the Westminster 'elite', after resigning from his junior minister role in the wake of the Dominic Cummings Durham scandal.
He has also voted against the Tory whip in the Agriculture Bill which went through the Commons last month.
Speaking this morning, Ms Hair said: “We are not ensuring that people in communities across Scotland are feeling that the UK Government is delivering for them. And that is the direct responsibility of ministers within the UK Government, but also of the party and party members.”
Asked if she thought a reset was needed on Scotland by Westminster, Ms Hair said: “You do need a reset when the status quo isn't working, and that is clearly the case.”
She explained: “Look at the furlough scheme - a really good recent example where the UK Government decided that the scheme would be rolled out for England in the period that England was in lockdown.
“That's not a unionist policy. “
Criticising UK Government ministers directly, she added: “That was a decision that was taken without looking at the whole United Kingdom and the whole picture of the United Kingdom, and it caused a real issue for the Government and it took them a number of days and a lot of bad headlines , particularly in Scotland, to get them back on track.
“If you have the sort of insight, if you have ministers that were 100% focused on delivering for every single part of the United Kingdom, we wouldn't have come up against that.
“That’s where this wake-up call is required because we shouldn't be making errors like that. We should be ensuring that ever policy before it is announced does deliver for every community across the United Kingdom, and does not support one at a disadvantage of another.”
Ms Hair, who was an MP between 2017 and 2019, before losing her seat to the SNP’s Dave Doogan last December, said that the “rise in nationalism” has been happening in Scotland “over a significant period of time” and “over successive governments”, as many administrations have based their investment and policy around London and the South East of England.
She Added that the current government had to “rise to the challenge” of beating the SNP, or face a “downwards spiral”.
She said: “ The UK Government needs to take stock of what they're doing and revaluate, and really show people in Scotland the importance of the UK Government to them, their livelihoods their jobs, their families, their community. Because if you don't do that, you're just heading in this downward spiral.
“We are fighting against a Nationalist government in Scotland, and they need to rise to that challenge.”
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