Liz Truss has promised there won’t be a second Scottish independence referendum “in my time” as she vows to strengthen and protect the Union.
The Foreign Secretary told The Telegraph he would refuse to allow a new election if he won the Conservative leadership race.
Her refusal to accept a second referendum anytime if she becomes prime minister appears to go significantly further than Boris Johnson’s earlier rejection of a second referendum simply on the basis that now was “not the time”.
Mrs Truss said: “Scottish nationalists have accepted that their referendum is a once-in-a-generation opportunity and I will hold them to that.”
She added: “I will work to strengthen our entire union. As Prime Minister, I will do what is necessary and right to protect our Union, just as I have already done with regard to the Northern Ireland Protocol.”
Her intervention came as Brandon Lewis, who quit as Northern Ireland Secretary earlier this month, backed Ms Truss to succeed Mr Johnson in Downing Street.
He also came out of hiding to accuse Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor and rival of Ms Truss for the Tory leadership, of blocking legislation designed to repeal the Protocol amid a standoff with the EU.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Lewis claimed that the Treasury under Mr Sunak was putting up “enormous resistance” to efforts to legislate to deal with the problems with the Protocol and was more focused on trying to ” keep the EU happy’.
Responding to Mr Sunak’s recent public commitment to the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which was overseen by Ms Truss, Mr Lewis said: “It’s good to see him coming to see that this is the way forward because it doesn’t quite reflect the experience I’ve had with the Treasury over the last year and a half.”
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