Fox: Westminster has 'duty of care' for civil servants in Scotland, including those involved in Salmond row

This is because the UK has one whole civil service, which Dr Fox argued “must be answerable to UK ministers” and means it would be for the House of Commons to ensure “constitutional propriety” is upheld regarding how the civil service in Scotland operates.

As MPs are set to debate the issue on Tuesday, Dr Fox pointed out how relevant Westminster committees could also examine the role of the civil service in Scotland, including in the Salmond row, and call witnesses to give evidence.

It was the claims of sexual harassment against Alex Salmond by two female civil servants that led in 2018 to an internal Scottish Government inquiry.

Leslie Evans, Scotland’s chief civil servant, has been called on to quit after a judge ruled the Scottish Government’s handling of the complaints, which she presided over, was unlawful, “procedurally unfair” and “tainted by apparent bias”.

In 2019, the former First Minister stood trial and was acquitted in court of 13 sexual assault charges against him.

In the interview, Dr Fox also said:

*Scots would be shocked how Nationalists were “devouring their own…in the circus maximus that has become the SNP’s internal politics” and the governing party was now suffering from the very thing it once accused Labour Party in Scotland of - taking Scottish voters for granted;

*Scots were beginning to see through the Nationalist “propaganda” and, because of the pandemic, were appreciating the UK’s “economy of scale” and ability to do “world-beating things” like the vaccine rollout;

*denied the 40% slump in UK exports to the EU in January was down to Brexit but, rather, the effects of Covid and the fact Britain was a service-based economy and

*he was enjoying his time on the backbenches, which he regarded as a luxury, and was not in any hurry to get another job but noted: “On the other hand, it’s disingenuous of any politician to say if the PM asked them, they would say no.”

The former GP, who worked as a junior hospital doctor in Glasgow, and has represented North East Somerset, formerly Woodspring, for 29 years, noted how the “collective memory at Westminster” was not what it used to be in relation to the constitutional boundaries when devolution was created.

Referring to the maintenance of a single UKwide civil service, Dr Fox explained: “There weren’t a huge number of things I agreed with Donald Dewar on but this was one of them. It was exactly for this kind of purpose; that if we had to protect our civil servants, we have a duty of care to all the civil servants and that duty of care, ensuring they weren’t bullied or made to behave inappropriately, was exercised for all the parts of the UK. That is where we are today. It is an important constitutional moment, that not everyone has appreciated.

He continued: “It’s up to MPs from all parts of the UK to determine whether they think the civil service has been potentially abused in this particular scandal. We are at a very different place. The idea the Scottish Government can simply play these internal battles which damage Scotland’s political reputation, we at Westminster - because Holyrood is a devolved parliament rather than an independent parliament - have a duty of care to make sure the people who work for the Scottish Parliament, who are part of the UK civil service, are properly looked after and protected and their reputation is protected.

“Up till now it’s been the view that, well, Scotland’s politics are Scotland’s business, but increasingly there is a view at Westminster that the UK has a responsibility for the constitutional propriety of it.

“Who governs Scotland is entirely a matter for the Scottish people, exercised through the ballot box, but how the system operates and the protection of the civil service is a matter for Westminster and a good thing too because there are increasing worries, not just at Westminster but across the whole country, that the Scottish executive rides roughshod over the Scottish Parliament, including parliamentary committees, and, therefore, the people of Scotland don’t get the scrutiny of the executive they have a right to expect and that the Government of the UK gets at Westminster.

“There is a genuine worry. This sort of behaviour we would be decrying in other countries and yet it is happening in a part of the United Kingdom and we all have a duty to uphold the constitutional propriety in all parts of the UK.”

Dr Fox stressed: “The people of Scotland have a right to elect any government they want; that’s an absolute. But they also have a right to expect that the constitutional arrangements will allow proper scrutiny of that government by the Scottish Parliament. They have a right to expect the civil service will work in an impartial way, in the way they do in the rest of the UK.”

A staunch Unionist, the 59-year-old politician had a particular strong take on health matters given his medical background and was clear that if Scotland were independent, then the speed and scale of the rollout of vaccines would not have been anything like the nation had already experienced.

“SNP support seems to be falling and support for separatism seems to be falling as people can see we can face the biggest crisis we have faced in recent times, the pandemic, much better because we have been able to act as a United Kingdom.

“A lot of people have been quite rightly saying that if Scotland had been separate, had it been in the EU for example, how many Scots would still be waiting for their vaccines today and that’s a very legitimate question.”

Dr Fox suggested that the further Britain got from the Second World War, the less people understood the strength of the Union in facing adversity.

“Maybe the pandemic has, to a new generation, awakened that thought; that when we have that economy of scale and are able to bring together the best of the state sector, the scale and logistics of the NHS, plus the agility of the private sector and our manufacturers plus the excellence of our academia, that we are able to do world-beating things.

“For a lot of people in Scotland, they are beginning to see through the SNP propaganda and say, you know what, we can do great things as part of the UK and the people of Scotland can benefit as a result of those great efforts from the United Kingdom.”

The former Tory Cabinet minister said the row between Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond had shown the SNP “in their true colours”.

He explained: “As with all parties that stay unchallenged for a while, they can become self-obsessed. The SNP are suffering from the very same thing they used to accuse the Labour Party in Scotland of, which is taking Scottish voters for granted.”

Dr Fox claimed for a long time businesses in Scotland had felt “bullied” into supporting the SNP while a supine media had been cowed by them.

“What has shocked people is that they have now started to devour their own…The SNP are prepared to do absolutely anything to protect themselves and Nicola Sturgeon even if that means throwing the former leader to the dogs.”

Last night, an SNP spokesman responded to the senior Conservatives’ remarks, saying: “Given that Liam Fox lost his job in Cabinet after trampling all over the boundaries between the civil service in a bid to give his friend and lobbyist an unofficial, unsanctioned Government role, he is the very last person to be giving lectures to anyone else on this subject.

“Meanwhile, Priti Patel’s actions resulted in paying out a six-figure settlement to a senior civil servant.”

He added: “As usual with the Tories, their hypocrisy and utter lack of self-awareness is on display for all to see.”

In the interview, the leading Brexiteer was also pressed over the initial effects of Brexit.

When it was suggested the 41% slump in UK exports to the EU in January was down to Britain’s departure from the EU, Dr Fox bristled and argued it was down to Covid and the subsequent lack of demand on the continent.

“Of course,” he declared, “you cannot extricate the effects of Covid and the slump across the European economies and the markets we sell into. For people to try to use the inevitable global slowdown in trade as a result of the pandemic to justify their previous positions on Brexit just doesn’t make sense.”

After failing to become head of the World Trade Organisation, the former International Trade Secretary looked at the positives, saying it had been a “huge learning experience,” which had involved more than 200 bilateral meetings with foreign and finance ministers around the world.

So, did he want to return to the UK Government frontline? Dr Fox insisted, after almost 30 years at Westminster, most of which had been as a minister, he was enjoying the “luxury” of being a backbencher.

Sipping coffee from his Ziggy Stardust mug, the Scot insisted: “I am in no great hurry to give that up. On the other hand,” he mused, “it’s disingenuous of any politician to say if the PM asked them, they would say no.”

Dr Fox proudly announced he had now received his Covid jag and after years of getting the needle from some journalists in the Westminster Lobby, noted with a smile: “I am one of the NHS vaccinators. I’ve offered to do the Lobby myself on the basis that I’m not averse to mixing business with pleasure.”