LIZ Truss has promised to “face down the separatists” in the United Kingdom, describing the Union as a “family”.
The Prime Minister’s comments came as she delivered her keynote speech to the Conservative conference in Birmingham.
Truss attacked the SNP and their leader Nicola Sturgeon during her speech, claiming the party was part of an “anti-growth coalition”.
The Prime Minister, speaking as polling suggested her popularity was below both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn at their lowest, focused on “growth, growth, growth”.
She told delegates: “This is the United Kingdom at its best, working together and getting our economy growing.
“And we will face down the separatists who threaten to pull apart our precious Union, our family.”
Truss went directly on to celebrate “seizing the new-found freedoms outside the European Union”.
She continued: “We’re the party who got Brexit done and we will realise on the promise of Brexit.
“We’re building an economy which makes the most of the huge opportunities Brexit offers. By the end of the year, all EU red tape will be consigned to history.”
The embattled Prime Minister, who has faced calls to step down before even reaching one month in the role, tried to unite her disparate political opponents under a single banner.
She said: “I will not allow the anti-growth coalition to hold us back.
“Labour, the LibDems, the SNP. The militant unions, the vested interests dressed up as think-tanks, the talking heads, the Brexit deniers, Extinction Rebellion, and some of the people we had in the hall earlier [referring to the Greenpeace protesters who interrupted her speech].
“The fact is, they prefer protesting to doing, they prefer talking on Twitter to taking tough decisions. They taxi from north London town houses to the BBC studio to dismiss anyone challenging the status quo.”
Responding to Truss’s attempt to coin a term, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon dismissed the “ranting”.
Ranting about an imaginary ‘anti growth coalition’ is just an attempt to obscure the hard reality that the biggest brake on UK growth is Brexit - and that’s on the Tories.
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) October 5, 2022
The SNP leader tweeted: “Ranting about an imaginary ‘anti-growth coalition’ is just an attempt to obscure the hard reality that the biggest brake on UK growth is Brexit – and that’s on the Tories.”
Truss called out Sturgeon by name during her speech, claiming that she "won't build new nuclear power stations to solve the energy crisis in Scotland".
"Have these people ever seen a tax rise they don't like? Or an industry they don't want to control?" the Prime Minister added to laughs from the audience.
Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, hit out at the Prime Minister’s “arrogant” speech.
The MP said: "Liz Truss has been a disaster for Scotland – and this arrogant speech demonstrates why Scotland needs independence to escape Westminster control and get rid of the Tories for good.
"The Prime Minister has taken a wrecking ball to our economy – and she is threatening people's mortgages, pensions, and household budgets with her incompetence. It's no wonder polls show she's even less popular than Boris Johnson in Scotland.
"This speech did nothing to reverse the damage she's done – and it offered no hope to those who will suffer if the Tories go ahead with devastating plans to impose £18 billion austerity cuts, which threaten Scotland's public services, our NHS and people's incomes."
The Prime Minister's pledge to "face down the separatists" comes after she said that indyref2 should not happen even if the Supreme Court rules that Holyrood can legislate to hold one.
Two Cambridge University experts said that the UK's highest court should note how the UK Government is "undermining democracy" in its ruling, even if it concludes that Scotland cannot hold a vote without Westminster consent.
