DOUGLAS Ross could become First Minister in May’s Holyrood election, Michael Gove has claimed.
The Cabinet Office minister repeatedly talked up the prospect of the Scottish Tory leader replacing Nicola Sturgeon while on a visit to Glasgow today.
Mr Gove said every vote for the Scottish Tories would “cut the SNP and cut Nicola Sturgeon down to size”, and it was for the people to choose the next First Minister.
“I hope it will be Douglas Ross,” he said.
Mr Ross, who was briefly an MSP before swapping Holyrood for Westminster in 2017, plans to return to the Scottish Parliament via the North East regional list in May.
The 38-year-old Moray MP has only been Scottish Tory leader since last August.
Mr Gove also attacked the SNP’s plans for a second independence referendum in the next parliament as a “momentous distraction” from the national recovery from the Covid pandemic, but was ambiguous about whether one could take place.
Despite Boris Johnson promising in his 2019 manifesto to “reject any request from the SNP Government to hold an independence referendum”, Mr Gove suggested the matter could turn on the result in May.
He said: “We’ll see what happens in the Scottish election.”
The SNP are currently comfortably ahead in the polls, on course for an overall majority or just short of one, with the Tories looking set to remain in second place.
Mr Gove said: “It’s up to the Scottish people to decide who the next First Minister is. I hope it will be Douglas Ross.
“The Scottish Conservatives are the only party fighting an unapologetically pro-UK campaign focused on jobs and economic recovery.
“We know that every vote for the Scottish Conservatives is a vote to cut the SNP and cut Nicola Sturgeon down to size and that seems to me to be the wisest thing to do.”
READ MORE: Covid Scotland - Douglas Ross pledges 'skills revolution' in 'Retrain to Rebuild' plan
Asked if UK government would agree to Indyref2 if the SNP won a majority, Mr Gove ducked the question.
He said: “We’ve been clear that the most important thing at the moment is to concentrate on our health recovery and our economic recovery.
"It seems to me that talk of an independence referendum at the moment is just a momentous distraction from that.”
He said voters were more interested in the NHS, schools, the economy and the recovery.
Pressed on whether it was right for Scots to get a second referendum if they vote for one, Mr Gove said: “We’ll see what happens in the Scottish election.
“But at the moment, I can certainly tell you that, and I think everyone can see this, that the principal focus of people in Scotland, as in the rest of the United Kingdom, across this family of nations, every family is focusing on making sure we can build back better.
“I know that is what the UK Government wants to do with whoever forms the Scottish Government after the elections in May.”
He said the May 6 election should look forward, but inevitably people would make a judgment on the Scottish Government’s record.
READ MORE: Anas Sarwar claims Tories 'biggest threat to United Kingdom'
He went on: “What I want to do is to make sure we’re in the strongest position possible, whoever the next First Minister is, to concentrate on those areas where we need to make up lost ground: education, waiting lists in our NHS and the economic performance of Scotland and the whole UK.”
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