Tory Cabinet Minister attacks ‘SNP pick-and-mix plan for independence’

“I DON’T want independence”, because welfare would “cost more and be more difficult to implement” if Scotland separated from the rest of the UK.

The senior Tory Cabinet minister, who was born in Edinburgh and describes himself as “a proud Scot”, also set himself against a so-called devo-max settlement, where welfare would be completely devolved to Holyrood.

He also accused the SNP of taking a “pick-and-mix” approach to independence and trying to “cloud the issue” but leaving much of the responsibility with Westminster.

He said: “I do love their [the SNP] argument, which is, at one level, they hate being part of the Union, they want out, they want independence. Then, because they realise that actually a lot of people begin to think that there is some real mileage to having this strength and support from the monarchy right the way through to the financial institutions, they now have a kind of pick-and-mix independence –which is ‘We will take the bits we want, and all the things we need support on … well, we’ll leave those very much with Westminster’.”