A statement by a senior United Kingdom Public Servant that Prime Minister, Boris Johnson (pictured) will be “front and centre” in trying to prevent the break-up of the Union has been met with hilarity on social media.
Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case said the COVID-19 pandemic and the exit from the European Union (Brexit) had put preventing the break-up of the UK “at the forefront of policy-making in Whitehall”.
It follows comment by former Permanent Secretary at the Department for Exiting the EU, Philip Rycroft that “imperious disregard” for the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland had made keeping the Union together more difficult.
Speaking before the House of Lords Constitution Committee, Mr Case said “you are going to see the Prime Minister front and centre of maintaining the integrity of the Union and more importantly, getting all of the constituent parts of the UK operating fully together for the benefit of everybody who lives and works inside the UK”.
He said the Public Service would not “devolve and forget” anymore because the pandemic had led to more awareness of the work of the devolved Governments.
“If you’d asked me only a few years ago did I think that devolution or the Union was at the forefront of policy-making in Whitehall I would have said probably not,” Mr Case said.
“I think the experience of both Brexit and obviously more recently COVID, means that so much more of Government, so much more of policy, involves consideration of devolution or Union questions,” he said.
This led to one supporter of Scottish independence saying with Mr Johnson involved “we can look forward to independence with total confidence”.
Another social media commentator wondered how Mr Case had kept a straight face while making the announcement, while another simply remarked that “Johnson being front and centre of any project dooms it to an inevitable and costly failure”.
London, 20 May 2021
