Truss: I’ll fight for Britain as Minister for the Union

LIZ Truss has promised to take on the role of ‘Minister for the Union’ if she becomes Prime Minister.

Boris Johnson created the role for himself and Miss Truss said she would not only assume the position but ‘seek to strengthen it’. She pledged to ‘put the Union at the heart of everything’ the Government does ahead of a visit to Scotland this week.

Miss Truss declared herself a ‘child of the Union’, pointing to being raised in Paisley and Leeds. She will appear in Perth at a hustings event with rival Rishi Sunak in a pitch to members north of the Border.

Miss Truss also accused the SNP of ‘playing political games’ with the constitution.

Reopening a war of words with the First Minister, having accused her of being an ‘attention seeker’, Miss Truss said she should focus on the economic crisis rather than campaigning for independence. She said: ‘As Prime Minister, I would also hold the role of Minister for the Union and seek to strengthen it.

‘My government would put the Union at the heart of everything it does and ensure all corners of our country are rightly championed at the very top of government. For too long, people in parts of our United Kingdom

have been let down by their devolved administrations playing political games instead of focusing on their priorities.’

She added: ‘We are not four separate nations in an agreement of convenience, as some would have us believe. We are one great country which shares a history and institutions, but also family and friends, memories and values.’

SNP deputy leader at Westminster Kirsten Oswald said: ‘Instead of rhyming off pointless, generic rhetoric about the UK being “one great country”, Liz Truss must listen to the people of Scotland who voted overwhelmingly in favour of another independence referendum last year.’