The Prime Minister has come under fire from all sides today after his remarks on devolution being a disaster.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir Starmer started by attacking Mr Johnsons's comments, saying devolution was “one of the proudest achievements of the last Labour government”.
He asked: “Until now, whatever our disagreements, there has been a very broad consensus about devolution."
He said: “So why did the Prime Minister tell his MPs this week that Scottish devolution is, in his words, a disaster?”
Mr Johnson said that the ‘disaster’ was that the SNP “have taken and used devolution as means not to improve the lives of their constituents, not to address their health concerns, not to improve education in Scotland, but constantly to campaign for the break-up of our country.”
The Prime Minister was taking part in the session remotely, after being told to self-isolate this weekend.
The Labour leader also said the biggest threat to the break-up of the United Kingdom was the Prime Minister himself “every time he opens his mouth” after the PM blamed the SNP for “not engaging with the basic work” of devolution.
Mr Starmer added: “When the Prime Minister said he wanted to take back control nobody thought he meant from the Scottish people.”
He said it “wasn’t an isolated incident”, adding: “Whether it is the Internal Market Bill, the way the Prime Minister side-lined the devolved parliaments over the Covid response, the Prime Minister is seriously undermining the fabric of the United Kingdom.
“So, instead of talking down devolution, does he agree that we need far greater devolution of powers and resources across the United Kingdom?”
Boris Johnson replied: “It is Tony Blair himself, the former Labour leader, who has conceded that he did not foresee the rise of a separatist party in Scotland, he did not foresee the collapse of Scottish Labour.”
Ian Blackford, SNP MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber and the party’s Westminster leader, also roundly criticised the Prime Minister for his remarks and said the “chasm” between Westminster and Scotland has “never been greater”.
He said Mr Johnson’s comments earlier represented a “slip of the mask” rather than a “slip of the tongue” and asked: “Isn’t it the case that the real disaster facing the people of Scotland is another 20 years of Westminster government?
“Isn’t clearer than ever that the only way … to protect Scotland’s interests, our Parliament and our place in Europe is for Scotland to become an independent country?”
Mr Johnson replied: “I could not disagree with the honourable gentleman more.
“He is totally wrong. What the UK does as a whole is far, far bigger, better and more important than what we can do as individual nations and regions."
He also said he believed that the Scottish people would again reject independence if there was another vote, explaining: "I may say I do not believe it will commend itself to the Scottish people.
"It was a programme that was decisively rejected in 2014, I believe that it is something that they would almost certainly reject again."
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