I never backed home rule says McLetchie as report surfaces

Published on Monday 8 January 2007 11:54

FORMER Scottish Tory leader David McLetchie today denied he had ever advocated devolution, despite the re-emergence of a pamphlet he wrote 30 years ago which appears to back home rule.

The pamphlet, written jointly with former Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth in 1975, "regrets" the hostility in the Tory party towards the Scottish Assembly which was proposed at the time.

But today Mr McLetchie, MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, said they had simply been arguing the party ought to accept what seemed inevitable and work with it.

The pamphlet was written when Mr McLetchie was a 22-year-old law graduate and "Mike" Forsyth was a third-year student at St Andrews. The then Labour government was drawing up plans for a Scottish Assembly and the pamphlet dealt with how the Conservatives should respond.

It is highlighted in a recently-published book by former Edinburgh Evening News journalist David Torrance on Scottish Secretaries of State.

But Mr McLetchie said he had never been pro-devolution. He said: "It has to be seen in context, which was we mistakenly believed there was going to be an assembly or parliament. A lot of people wanted nothing to do with it, but we were saying you cannot do that because it's going to be an established feature of the constitution whether you like it or not."