PHOTO PHOTO: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson handcuffs during a visit to North Yorkshire Police to meet with recently graduated police officers in Northallerton, UK July 30, 2020. Charlotte Graham / Pool via REUTERS
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Monday that Britain would be weaker than the union that bound its four peoples – its latest rejection of growing pressure for Scottish independence.
Opinions between the states of the British states – Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England – on the handling of the coronavirus pandemic have already damaged relations damaged by Brexit.
This is particularly the case in Scotland, which voted against leaving the European Union and where opinion polls show support for independence is closer to heavier than support for its 300-year union with England.
“The Union of the United Kingdom is to me the greatest political partnership the world has ever seen,” Johnson told broadcasters when asked what the union meant to him.
“It would be so shameful to lose the power, the magic of that union.”
Scotland voted 55 per cent to 45 per cent against independence in a 2014 referendum, but the Scottish National Party leading the semi-autonomous nation wants a different vote. Although voters there remained backed in the EU, Britain as a whole voted to leave.
Johnson’s Conservative Party, which governs all of Britain and decides policy in areas not bordered by Scotland, is a strong supporter of the union and rejects any call for a different vote.
Johnson and other senior ministers have visited Scotland in recent weeks, however, and have long talked about the strengths and benefits of the relationship.
Written by William Schomberg and William James; edited by Kate Holton
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