The announcement of a general election after triggering Article 50, and with less than two months’ notice to polling day, has been one of Theresa May’s most cavalier moments – and that really is saying something.
Instead of focusing on the most important peacetime negotiations the UK might ever have, this Tory prime minister is launching us into further uncertainty and unease. Talks to leave the EU have barely begun and the individual who is supposed to be leading them has decided instead to ditch her day job for party political interests.
Theresa May has shown gross negligence in ignoring her responsibilities as prime minister and losing focus on the vital negotiations over the UK’s exit from the EU.
If this was really about strong elected leadership, she would have called a general election before triggering Article 50 to allow appropriate time for a UK Government to prepare for talks. The two-year window to negotiation with EU counterparts now has a couple of months ripped out of it, making negotiating a good deal all the harder.
Projections for the Tory hard Brexit are already warning of financial difficulties, with 80,000 jobs expected to be lost by 2030.
Here in the north-east, the Oil and Gas Institute is forecasting that a hard Brexit would cost the industry’s supply chain an extra £200million a year. The UK Government has already been asleep at the wheel when it comes to this vital industry and seems intent to carry on ignoring the oil and gas industry to instead.
There are people who have been treated appallingly by the inhumane austerity measures of the Conservatives in government.
Over the past week there has been more media coverage of the disgusting welfare changes and rape clause. Championed by Theresa May in Westminster and supported by Ruth Davidson in Holyrood and local Tories in the north-east, the clause means mothers will only receive tax credits for more than two children if they can prove a third child was conceived as a result of rape.
These sort of abhorrent policies show that the Tories do not want a fair or strong society for everyone, they instead want to exploit the most vulnerable in our society – including rape victims – to push through their own ideological austerity obsession.
The bullish attitude of the Tories will not be well received in Scotland.
It is vital that we have MPs in place who will fight day and night to expose these cruel Conservative Government measures and keep Scotland’s best interests at the forefront of political debate in Westminster.
My SNP colleagues and I may not want this general election at a time where we would rather get on with our jobs representing our constituents in parliament, but we will fight and campaign as hard as we can to fight the damaging social agenda of the Tories at every opportunity, against a hard Tory Brexit and to ensure Scotland’s voice is heard in Westminster.
