My ministers will explain themselves to Holyrood, says Cameron

Published on Monday 29 September 2008 22:24

MINISTERS in a future Tory government would be compelled to appear before Holyrood committees to explain their policies to Scotland, David Cameron pledged yesterday.

The Tory leader hopes to build a relationship of "respect" with the Scottish Parliament as he knows that he is likely to have few Conservative MPs north of the Border after the next general election.

This would involve UK ministers opening themselves up to scrutiny from MSPs on a wide range of issues if it is considered "appropriate".

When Labour controlled the Scottish Parliament, ministers such as Peter Hain, then Minister for Europe, and Elliot Morley, then fisheries minister, did appear – though Gordon Brown, when Chancellor, and more senior trade ministers refused.

The Tories claim that Labour's period in office was marked by far more refusals than acceptances, a position they are determined to reverse.

Mr Cameron, in an interview with BBC Scotland at the Tory party conference, said: "I want to make devolution work better. I would like to see ministers in any government I lead actually appearing in front of committees in Holyrood if that was appropriate."

Despite appearing to leave open the possibility of ministers still being able to refuse demands to appear in Edinburgh, a senior Scottish Tory source indicated that Mr Cameron was effectively rewriting current convention.

The source said: "It's the 'respect' agenda in action. There will be an expectation that they will appear rather than an expectation that they won't. It's a reversal of the last nine years."

In the interview, Mr Cameron admitted that his party would struggle to add to the sole MP it has in Scotland. But he rejected suggestions that a Tory government at Westminster would merely build support for the SNP if the party in power in London had little support in Scotland.

Mr Cameron said: "Of course, I want us to win more seats in Scotland but I'm a realist. I know that however well we do, we will still face challenges in Scotland. If I become prime minister, people in Scotland should know I will reach out to anyone and everyone in Scotland who wants to make the United Kingdom work.

"Working with the First Minister, whoever that is, because if Alex Salmond thinks the election of a Conservative government will somehow help him break up the Union, he has got another think coming. I'm a passionate believer in the United Kingdom and I want Scotland and England to stay in the United Kingdom together and I will do what is necessary to see that happen."

Mr Cameron, who will make his main address to the conference tomorrow, said he had supported cross-party working in Westminster over schooling and the Trident nuclear missiles, and "we have got to have that sort of grown-up attitude to working together in Scotland".

He went on: "Devolution working means that you, as the British prime minister, have to accept that there are people with different political views who might be running the assembly in Wales, who might be running the parliament in Scotland, and you have to work with them."

Despite the Tories polling above 20 per cent in opinion polls in Scotland, election experts think they will struggle to turn that into constituencies. The seats thought most likely to fall to the party are Edinburgh South, East Renfrewshire and Dumfries and Galloway, all currently held by Labour. But the party expected to make the biggest gains in the event of a Labour collapse is the SNP.

Mr Cameron said: "At heart what I believe in is giving people more power and responsibility over their lives. I think that chimes in very much with what people in Scotland would like to see. They have had too much big bossy interfering Labour government and I think they would like a change."