Analysis: If Boris Johnson is visiting Scotland, he must bring a change of tone with him

Boris Johnson will tour Scotland this week in a bid to shore up support for the union as polls continue to show a lead for independence.

We learned this not from an announcement, nor from a briefing to a Scottish newspaper, but instead through a story in a UK tabloid that gave no more details. The Prime Minister is excited to come to Scotland, he just isn’t telling Scots about it.

Support for independence has led 20 polls in a row, and the minister for the union faces the risk of overseeing losing a huge part of it.

There are questions over whether the PM should be travelling at all, but under the thin reasoning of it being “work”, Mr Johnson needs to do something, anything, to change his profile in Scotland.

His premiership and the Brexit chaos that has hit Scotland’s seafood industry just as hard as all the experts he scoffed at warned are both key factors in support for independence.

There is real anger towards the PM and his offer of £100,000 in compensation to companies that have lost millions or gone under will do little to address that.

Today marks 100 days until the Scottish elections and Mr Johnson knows he has to act.

As anyone who’s faced a break-up knows, you don’t save a relationship by simply telling your friends you want it to work. You have to put in the time, have difficult conversations, and possibly stand outside Holyrood with flowers and a boombox playing their favourite song.

The great risk lies in the PM’s tendency to deliver messages aimed at those already supporting him, rather than an olive branch to those who don't.

Compare and contrast his discussion of the vaccine programme to that of UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

On Monday night during a televised briefing, Mr Hancock praised “colleagues” in the Scottish Government and stressed how “incredibly hard” they were working to deliver the rollout. The PM had earlier told his 1922 group of MPs there would be no vaccines for Scotland if it were up to the SNP.

Mr Johnson desperately needs to do something now. But failing to sing the virtues of co-operation and instead banging the drum for his own successes will only enhance the existential threat to the union.

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