Plans for Tory leader David Cameron to hold annual meetings with the Scottish Parliament in a bid to improve relations between London and Edinburgh were unveiled last night.
Shadow Tory Scottish Secretary David Mundell said that if elected next spring, Mr Cameron would offer to address MSPs once a year and answer questions in Holyrood as part of his “respect” agenda.
The Scottish Secretary would do so at the time of the Queen’s Speech outlining Westminster’s plans for the coming year and Treasury ministers would be sent north at the time of the Budget and the autumn statement to explain their effects on Scotland, he said.
But the olive branch held out by Mr Mundell at a fringe meeting organised by the Scottish Tories at the party’s Manchester conference was immediately flatly rejected by the SNP.
Dundee East MP Stewart Hosie, the party’s chief whip and treasury spokesman, said he would love to see a respectful relationship between the Scottish and UK governments, but added: “The problem is that David Cameron has fallen at the first two hurdles: by refusing to allow the SNP to take part in televised live leaders’ debates before the general election and, more worryingly, by rejecting the Calman Commission recommendation that the Scottish government should have borrowing powers.”
Mr Hosie said: “I think David Cameron is going to have to prove with his actions that he is respectful and not simply with his words.”
Mr Mundell said Mr Cameron had already promised that within a week of entering No 10 Downing Street he would meet First Minister Alex Salmond.
He said the Tories believe the Cabinet-level office of Scottish secretary is “indispensable”, dismissing talk of subsuming it in a “hotchpotch” Department of the Nations and Regions as “a mistake”. He promised the “respect agenda” would apply across Whitehall and other ministers would be sent north when requested to meet Scottish Parliament committees on issues within their remits.
He claimed: “This shows that, while Labour and Alex Salmond want to focus on the creation of artificial grievances to advance their own party political interests, we and the public want to focus on co-operation in the national interest.”
He claimed there were divisions within the SNP over how far to co-operate with the UK government, suggesting Mr Hosie was “positive” while Mr Salmond had been dismissive.
Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie said: “David Cameron’s agenda for government is for the whole of the United Kingdom.”