David Cameron today accuses Alex Salmond of “taking people for fools” and dismisses his portrayal of an independent Scotland as a utopia with no debts or budget deficit as “tosh”.
In an exclusive interview with The Herald ahead of the Scottish Tories’ one-day conference in Perth on Friday, the Conservative leader also appeals to Scots not to judge the modern Conservative Party by its Thatcherite past.
He talks up his so-called “respect agenda” of Westminster and Holyrood working harmoniously together but accepts that his party has been held back in Scotland by “perceptions about the past” and stresses he leads a “different Conservative Party to the one that was in power in the 1980s”.
He says: “Judge us by what we do ... I understand the worry people have about the scale of a UK mandate and I understand people’s worry about governing Scotland with respect, and that we have to prove ourselves.”
Mr Cameron sweeps aside a Nationalist agenda of grievance, saying Mr Salmond is “making a mistake in being so simplistic and taking Scottish voters for granted”.
He again pledges that if the Tories win the election he will meet the First Minister in his first week in office, and other senior ministers will travel to Edinburgh to explain and discuss UK Government policy to MSPs.
“The respect agenda of recognising we do live in one United Kingdom but we do have two nations with two parliaments and two governments that need to work together and recognising that means I don’t think there has to be a problem.”
Asked if he thought a new Tory government with a spending cuts agenda would be a political gift to the SNP ahead of a Scottish Parliament poll, the Conservative leader replies: “This is where they’re taking people for fools because everybody knows there’s a massive budget deficit, everyone knows the whole of the United Kingdom is in debt, everyone knows there’s a problem. If Alex Salmond thinks he can fool people by saying: ‘Oh, if only we were independent, we wouldn’t have any debts, we wouldn’t have any deficit, we wouldn’t have any problems’, people know that’s tosh.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Cameron says:
l there is a need for Holyrood to have “greater financial accountability” but fails to give a guarantee it would definitely get more tax powers under a Conservative administration;
l on “lunchgate”, Mr Salmond has “questions to answer” over auctioning meals at Holyrood but Cameron stresses the rules have to be clarified – his circumspection might be explained by how in 2007 he himself became embroiled in a meals-for-access row;
l on whether he is losing it over policy detail as the polls narrow: “Do I look it? No”;
l on whether David Mundell will become Scottish Secretary: “You will have to wait and see what appointments are made if we win an election but, suffice it to say, David has done an excellent job.”
