Theresa May open to Scottish views on Brexit

Theresa May has told Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, that she is willing to listen to options about Scotland's future relationship with the European Union, but she rejected a second referendum on Scottish independence.

The new British prime minister went to Edinburgh less than 48 hours after entering office with a declaration of her commitment to keep the United Kingdom together.

“I’m willing to listen to options, and I’ve been very clear with the first minister today that I want the Scottish government to be fully engaged in our discussion,” Mrs May said.

“I have already said that I won’t be triggering Article 50 until I think that we have a UK approach and objectives for negotiations – I think it is important that we establish that before we trigger Article 50.”

Commitment to consult

Ms Sturgeon

said she and the prime minister were from very different parts of the political spectrum, but she welcomed Mrs May’s commitment to consulting the Scottish government on post-

Brexit

options.

“I was very pleased that Theresa May said that she was absolutely willing to consider any options that the Scottish government now bring forward to secure Scotland’s relationship with the [EU], that the process that now takes shape by the UK government will be open and flexible, and that the Scottish government will be fully involved in that,” she said.

“It would be inconceivable for any prime minister to seek to stand in the way of a referendum if that is what the Scottish parliament voted for,” she said. “And we have heard from other Conservative politicians in the past few weeks that that would be the wrong thing to do as well.

“So I work on the basis that trying to block a referendum, if there’s a clear sense that that’s what people in Scotland want, would be completely the wrong thing to do,” Ms Sturgeon said.

After a reshaping of the government on Thursday, Mrs May paused on Friday before reshuffling the junior ministries.

As the new prime minister tightened her grip on government, it emerged that her predecessor, David Cameron, had ordered one-off payments worth a quarter of a million pounds to political special advisers. The political appointees, who had expected to be employed until September, lost their jobs this week when Mrs May became prime minister.

The cabinet office permanent secretary, John Manzoni, had warned that such payments were unwarranted.

“Legal advice supports this position, and lawyers have been clear that awarding a further month’s salary for special advisers in this position would constitute a payment above their contractual entitlement,” he said.

Mr Cameron ignored the advice, giving them six months of pay instead of the 4½ months stated in their contracts.

The outgoing prime minister will further reward friends and colleagues in his resignation honours list, which is expected to be published next week.