TORY peer Lord David Frost has said independence and the SNP have “come close to dismembering” Scotland as he once again took aim at devolution.
In a column for the Daily Telegraph last week, he claimed that devolving powers to both Scotland and Wales “has resulted only in the recreation of closed-shop fiefdoms”. He called for devolution to be "reversed".
Frost, who previously served as the UK’s chief Brexit negotiator, was blasted for his comments by both the SNP and Scottish Conservatives.
In an interview with Dan Wootton on GB News, he said that there were “sympathisers” in his own party encouraging him to keep expressing anti-devolution sentiments.
'We've ridden this tiger long enough, it has come close to dismembering the country. It's time to stop and have a proper debate on: Does Scotland need all these powers?' Lord Frost calls for the 'constraining' of Scotland’s devolved powers amid the SNP crisis. pic.twitter.com/2Q51y7ZzZz
— GB News (@GBNEWS) April 25, 2023
The host asked him if his case was down to the SNP “driving the nation into the ground” and that “fans of devolution will say you can’t blame the system, you’ve got to blame scheming Sturgeon”.
Frost replied: “I mean, obviously the SNP are interested in independence, they’re not interested in governing Scotland well and we’ve learnt that, that’s absolutely clear.
“But the bigger problem is that conventional wisdom across all parties in the last 15/20 years has said the way to defuse independence, the way to make it go away as an issue is to give more devolved powers to Scotland and we’ve done that time and time again and what has happened, it’s got worse, independence has got stronger, the SNP has got stronger.
“I think we’ve ridden that tiger long enough; it has come close to dismembering the country. It’s time to stop and have a proper debate about, does Scotland need all these powers, does it need these powers to raise taxes, be a semi-independent state on the world stage.
“I don’t think so. I think it’s reasonable they should have the powers to administer Scotland fairly and reasonably, they don’t need more than that.”
Following Frost’s initial column, First Minister Humza Yousaf vowed to “always defend our democracy” and said it was part of a wider pattern of Tory behaviour of trying to interfere with Scottish democracy.
Wootton then put it to Frost that the pandemic showed “just how concerning” devolved powers could be and that Sturgeon had proposed “some sort of border between Scotland and England to stop the pesky English people bringing Covid into the country”.
Frost continued: “The trouble is that one thing leads to another and the SNP, they believe in independence, they use every lever they’ve got to say if you just give us this one more power, we’ll be able to make this one work well.
“Before you know it you’re a long way down a slippery slope and we are very unusual in this country in even contemplating independence for part of our country so I really think it’s time for us to get a grip and constrain the debate, constrain the powers and try to move to a different place.”
He added that the SNP were only interested in “stoking grievance” and saying that they do not get enough money from London.
