A TORY apparatchik is facing questions after a meeting with a fringe ultra-Unionist group.
Naveed Asghar, who is the deputy chair of the Glasgow Conservative and Unionist Association and a parliamentary staffer, met with Mark Devlin and other members of The Majority at the House for an Art Lover earlier this month.
It is not known what was discussed during the meeting but Asghar, sharing a photo of the rendezvous on Twitter on February 9, said: “ Great to catch up with the team [at The Majority]!
Great to catch up with the team @themajorityscot ! Some robust discussions on national politics. Was a pleasure to be invited to speak. pic.twitter.com/P1t6H0uD18
— Naveed Asghar (@naveedasghar) February 9, 2023
“Some robust discussions on national politics. Was a pleasure to be invited to speak.”
Neither Asghar nor the Scottish Conservatives responded to a request for comment.
But the Scottish Greens suggested it was indicative of a reactionary turn within the Tory party since Brexit.
A party spokesperson said: “Since the Brexit vote we have seen the emergence of an even more extreme, reactionary and anti-democratic Tory party.
"They have flip-flopped and floundered while delivering terrible economic damage and fuelling the most divisive culture wars to distract from their many failings.
"In 2021 the people of Scotland elected the largest ever majority of pro-independence MSPs.
"It is time for the Scottish Tories and their newfound friends to respect the result, let the people of have their say and see what the majority of Scotland really thinks."
SNP MSP Rona Mackay said: said: “While this alliance might have previously alarmed some Scottish Tories, it is no longer a surprise.
"Under Douglas Ross’s reign the Tories have embarked on a scorched earth policy by aligning with hardline unionists to deny democracy to Scottish voters.
“Scotland has rejected the Tories at every election since the 1950s and boasting about a tie-up with fringe groups such as this is a clear indication of how desperate they are. It won’t work.
"Scotland will have the opportunity to choose a better future free of Westminster control and to be rid of the Tories for good by becoming a happier, fairer and wealthier independent country.”
The Majority are best known for their “Resign Sturgeon” billboard campaign.
They have previously accused pro-UK journalists such as Alex Massie of “appeasement” towards the independence movement for failing to endorse their ultra-Unionist agenda and have advocated for the UK to ban the possibility of Scotland exiting the Union altogether.
In a blog post last year, the group’s founder Mark Devlin called on the UK Government to take an even firmer stance against independence by calling for ministers to completely refuse to engage on the question of Scotland’s future.
He wrote: “No more talk of setting conditions based on random percentages and no more indulgence of separatist narratives like the length of a generation or weasel words like ‘now is not the right time’ or ‘perhaps after the pandemic’ that imply there’s still a chance.
"No more appeasement. The answer should always be not simply ‘No’, but ‘That’s impossible, we don’t give up on our country’.”
And in another, Devlin took aim at pro-UK columnists at The Times branding its Scottish opinion writers the “Appeasement Division”.
He wrote: “As Brexit fades, Massie’s columns have tended to be more pro-UK, but there’s always that underlying current of ‘If only…’. In July last year he wrote that Sturgeon’s SNP had been engaged in ‘good governance’, that the pandemic ‘has seen her at her finest’, and most tellingly of all, ‘A better nationalism would be larger than this’.
“What is this ‘better nationalism’? These sentiments are mirrored by The Times Separatist-in-Chief, Kenny Farquharson, who, after writing a whole article about how Scottish nationalism is founded on ‘othering’ of the English, says that he would ‘love to be proved wrong’ about it.”
