Boris Johnson defends Scotland visit and dismisses referendum discussion as ‘completely irrelevant’

Boris Johnson has defended his Scotland visit and dismissed calls for a referendum as “completely irrelevant”.

The Prime Minister said his heavily-criticised trip was to thank those fighting Covid, and stressed the testing operation in Glasgow and development of a potential new vaccine in Livingston underlined the benefit of the United Kingdom.

He also dismissed calls for another independence referendum as a distraction to dealing with the pandemic.

Instead he said it was “fantastic to see real Scottish academic expertise brought to bear on the problem” of coronavirus.

Further, he said it was “inspiring to see Scottish troops working to get the vaccine into the arms of the people of Scotland”.

Mr Johnson said: “Valneva, which is a great success for Scotland, they are on the path, I hope and believe, to creating a successful vaccine and if that vaccine is approved by the HRA then we'll have 60 billion doses of it by the end of this year for the whole of the British people and so it's a success for Scotland and a success for Britain.”

His trip had been criticised by the First Minister as “not essential”, with Nicola Sturgeon urging him to set an example and stay at home.

Several other SNP MSPs, including Livingston MP Hannah Bardell and the Scottish Greens, also questioned the wisdom of his visit, although Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Johnson “as PM, needed to know what was going on on the ground”.

The Prime Minister said his trip was part of his focus on tackling the virus and, when asked about opinion polls, said that he did not believe Scots wanted a second independence referendum.

“My strong feeling is that the whole country needs to work together,” he said.

"I want to work together with the devolved administration to get through the pandemic and to bounce back strongly. I think that's the focus that people have and I think that talking about another referendum is really not the priority of people, either in Scotland or any other part of the UK by comparison with this pandemic.

"Recovery is what we all want to see. I believe in addition rather than division.”

Asked why in the past ten months he had failed to convince Scots to support his government, with his own personal rating plummeting in the polls, and the impact this would likely have on the Conservatives’ fortunes in the Holyrood elections, Mr Johnson said: “I think that obviously these are difficult criticisms for me, but the fact is that the SNP Government has not been notably successful in delivering good results on on education, on tackling drugs, and in many other ways, and I think that is a mark of their general diversionary tactics, that they continue to talk about a referendum rather than about domestic political concerns, which I think is the crucial thing.”

He added: “One of the interesting things about people who go on about a referendum again ... what is it intending to deliver, this referendum? What happens to the pound, the public purse, the army, the Queen, the security services.

"None of the questions fundamental to statehood have been answered, so to say you want another referendum is a bit like saying you don't mind what you eat, as long as you eat it with a spoon. What's it all about?

"We had one of these in 2014 and we were told it was a once-in-a-generation event, so let's take them at their word.”

Mr Johnson also gave his backing to Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross and said “wild horses” would not keep him away from Scotland when the election campaign began.

Pointing to the spending of £280 billion by the UK Government to cope with Covid, Mr Johnson said Scotland had benefited from “the capacity of the Treasury”.

Responding to concerns about the rollout of the vaccine in Scotland, he also said he wanted to work with all authorities to “speed things up where we possibly can.”

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