A common complaint from traditional supporters of the Conservatives is that, after 13 years in power, their party has very little to show for it. There has been little roll-back of New Labour era legislation, or the Blair-Brown equalities agenda, or the expansion of the administrative state and taxpayer-funded third-sector organisations committed to progressive policy outcomes. (Not my priorities but what Tories tell me are theirs.)
There is a case to be made that the UK is more politically, culturally and fiscally left than it was when David Cameron took over in 2010. Were it not for Brexit and Rishi’s recent rollback on net zero targets, ministers would have had precious little to say to this weekend’s Tory conference that would be welcomed by the average delegate.
There is an exception to this and that is Scottish Secretary Alister Jack. Since taking up the role in 2019, the Dumfries and Galloway MP has broken with the Labour-Tory consensus of ‘devolve and forget’, i.e. handing more and more powers to the Scottish parliament while allowing the significance of the UK state to fade north of the border. His approach has prompted much wailing from the SNP and the sort of Unionist who is never happier than when he’s losing in a gentlemanly fashion to nationalists. His mere appointment — Jack is a Brexiteer and a Boris Johnson ally — caused fits of the vapours among the political class and commentariat in 2019.
Jack has replaced devolve and forget with a strategy of reassert and reinforce
And yet he is the Secretary of State with the best story to tell at Tory conference. He used his speech on Sunday afternoon to spell out what he’s been doing at the Scotland Office, a service he need not provide north of the border where his activities have not gone unnoticed. He described this ministry as ‘the most active and effective UK Government in Scotland in the devolution era’. Even if you’re not minded to give the Tories credit for anything — and I’m not — you would struggle to debunk that statement.
After introducing it to much fanfare, New Labour simply stopped talking about devolution. Maybe its aim of keeping the Scots happy was thought to have been fulfilled. Maybe the scandals around the budget-busting parliament building and the expenses row that forced the resignation of one Labour first minister soured Downing Street on the whole endeavour. Wherever the truth lies, devolution set sail in 1999 and may as well have been lost at sea for all that was heard of it at Westminster for the next decade.
The Cameron-era Tories swung recklessly in the opposite direction. They couldn’t leave the damned thing alone. They passed one bill giving Holyrood more powers; another holding a referendum on independence; and, despite the SNP losing that, yet another bill with even more new powers. Cameron’s ‘respect agenda’ was a six-year-long each-way bet for the SNP. Heads they won, tails the UK lost. From legislating the ‘permanence’ of the Scottish parliament to recognising in law Alex Salmond’s unilateral renaming of the Scottish Executive as ‘the Scottish Government’, the Cameron years were the lowest point of the devolved era so far.
Jack has driven a much-needed stake through the heart of this constitutional masochism. He told delegates:
‘Today I can announce the era of devolve and forget is over. It is dead. Finished. And I can promise you it is not coming back under my watch.’
He has replaced devolve and forget with a strategy of reassert and reinforce, building the UK Government’s activities in Scotland while facing down Scottish government overreach. In the former column, there is his idea to have the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the replacement for EU structural funds, go directly from the Treasury to Scottish councils and other organisations, bypassing SNP ministers altogether. He told conference this now represented £2.5 billion of direct spending over and above the block grant.
In the latter column, there is his intervention to prevent the SNP-Green Scottish Government imposing its deposit return scheme (DRS) on English businesses that sell to Scotland. In denying the required exemption under the Internal Market Act, Jack prompted Scottish ministers to abandon the whole enterprise, saving thousands of Scottish businesses from costs and regulations so unpopular that they even prompted some rare dissent within the SNP. He has also been the scourge of Scottish government efforts to promote independence in closed-door meetings with officials from foreign governments.
Laudable though these achievements are, he is still best known in Scotland as the man who blocked Nicola Sturgeon’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill, siding with women’s rights campaigners and legal experts who warned the Bill could wreak havoc on the operation of Britain-wide laws. The backlash came not only from the Scottish political establishment and displeasure at Westminster was not limited to the benches opposite. The courts are currently considering a legal challenge to his actions but whatever the outcome Jack proved that Whitehall no longer needs to be afraid of the SNP.
The minister told conference that his view of devolution was ‘straightforward’ and meant ‘Scotland’s two governments, at Westminster and Holyrood, respecting each other’s roles and working together where we can’. It’s a well-meaning sentiment, and does underline the long-time businessman’s distaste for politics, but it reflects the limitations of even the most impressive Scottish Secretary of the devolved era.
The ‘two governments’ model is perilously close to the ‘respect agenda’, implying a parity between Westminster and Holyrood that is at odds with the constitutionally proper and politically wise. Yes, ministers in London and Edinburgh should have polite and professional relations but the central fact around which all devolved politics should revolve is that Westminster is sovereign and Holyrood ought to act accordingly. For devolution to be sustainable, it will require structural reform to make it more compatible with the political unity of the UK. That is a case I’ve been making for some time, but I have not been able to convince Jack or any other current ministers. No matter: the fight goes on.
His lack of radicalism on devolution reform aside, Alister Jack has been able to give conference tangible examples of his successes because he has been willing to do something many other ministers shy away from. He has used his ministerial powers in ways not only pursuant to his responsibilities and beneficial to the country, but in line with what voters might expect from a Tory politician. In a nominally Conservative and Unionist government, Jack can lay claim to being the most Conservative and Unionist minister of all.
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