I won’t support no-deal Brexit, says defiant Ruth Davidson

Ruth Davidson has issued a defiant challenge to Boris Johnson, pledging she will refuse to back a no-deal Brexit before his first visit to Scotland as prime minister.

The leader of the Scottish Conservatives is expected to meet Johnson in Edinburgh on Monday, after the prime minister begins his trip north with a visit on the west coast.

Writing in her regular column for the Scottish Mail on Sunday, Davidson said: “When I was debating against the pro-Brexit side in 2016, I don’t remember anybody saying we should crash out of the EU with no arrangements in place to help maintain the vital trade that flows uninterrupted between Britain and the European Union.

“I don’t think the government should pursue a no-deal Brexit and, if it comes to it, I won’t support it.”

Saying she had confirmed her position to Johnson when the pair spoke by telephone last week following his election as UK Conservative leader, Davidson added: “As the leader of the party in Scotland, my position exists independently of government. I don’t have to sign a no-deal pledge to continue to serve.”

Davidson’s public defiance – just as the Brexit planning minister Michael Gove confirmed that the government was operating on the assumption that the UK would leave the EU without a deal on 31 October – will further test her already strained relationship with Johnson.

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She was reported to be “livid” after the prime minister sacked her ally, the Scottish secretary, David Mundell, and appointed Alister Jack in his place. Mundell later confirmed that Johnson had replaced him because he “wasn’t as on board with a no-deal Brexit as [Johnson] would want me to be”.

Johnson went on to appoint an English MP, Robin Walker, as a junior minister at the Scotland Office, in an apparent snub to the 12 other Scottish Conservative MPs. Johnson later added Colin Clark, one of his most vocal supporters north of the border who unseated Alex Salmond in the 2017 general election, to the team.

Source – https://www.theguardian.com/