James Forsyth James Forsyth

Can Johnson save the Union?

Boris Johnson holds crabs caught in Stromness, Scotland (Photo by Robert Perry - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

‘UK Prime Minister visits Scotland’ shouldn’t really be a news story. But so infrequent have prime ministerial visits been in recent years that it is.

The fact it is news that the Prime Minister is in Scotland today has allowed Nicola Sturgeon to fire off a bunch of rather sarcastic tweets about how, given his polling numbers, Johnson’s visit is a birthday present to her. No. 10’s aim should be to make prime ministerial visits to Scotland so frequent that they cease to be regarded as events in and of themselves.

But the battle for the Union must not just be fought in Scotland. At the 1922 committee last night, Johnson made the point that the break-up of the Union would be catastrophic – not just for Scotland but the rest of the UK too. 

This is crucial. People need to realise how devastating and disrupting Scottish independence would be for the whole of the UK.

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