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Brexit must benefit Scotland to avoid 'complacency' over independence

Ruth Davidson speaks at the conference, organised by the Policy Exchange thinktank.
Ruth Davidson speaks at the conference, organised by the Policy Exchange thinktank. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA

Ministers should make sure Brexit properly benefits Scotland amid potential complacency over the possibility of another independence referendum, the Conservative leader in the country, Ruth Davidson, has argued.

In a speech in London following Nicola Sturgeon’s comments on Sunday in which she vowed to “restart a debate” on independence, Davidson said it was important to restore the emotional bonds of the union after Brexit.

Davidson’s warning ran contrary to comments earlier at the same event by Michael Gove, who said he believed the Brexit vote had made unionism stronger.

Addressing the conference in Westminster, organised by the Policy Exchange thinktank, Davidson said she had heard many pro-union Scots say that after Brexit “they now feel their relationship with the rest of the UK is transactional – that where once emotion and a sense of shared values bonded them together with the UK as a whole, now it is down to brass tacks and necessity of economic security and regulatory ease”.

She said: “So while Brexit may not have made the headline difference to percentage support for or against the union, we must be careful that it does not erode support for the union beneath the numbers.”

Davidson’s suggestions for shoring up the alliance included making the UK government and economy less dominated by London, and placing agencies running powers repatriated from Brussels around the country, for example a fisheries organisation in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire.

She was scathing about Sturgeon’s comments about looking again at independence, saying the SNP was “reverting back to its favoured position of seeing if anything turns up”.

Davidson continued: “Now, at this point I could easily talk up the theory that Nicola Sturgeon has blown it, that the union is safe, that independence has had it. But, again, I would repeat my warning about the dangers of complacency.”

Downing Street also condemned Sturgeon’s renewed talk of independence on Monday.

Theresa May’s spokesman said: “Now is not the time for another divisive independence referendum and there is no appetite for one. The people of Scotland voted decisively in 2014 to remain part of the United Kingdom and that should be respected.”

Speaking earlier, Gove said the decline in SNP support since the Brexit referendum showed it had actually made the union stronger, and that there was no rising support for a united Ireland.

The environment secretary said: “The referendum campaign was fought against a backdrop of people predicting that Britain leaving the European Union would lead to damage for the UK as a political construct. And so far, that hasn’t come about.”

Brexit was “at last in part of a vote of confidence in Britain”, he argued.

Gove criticised the SNP for using identity politics to promote Scottish nationalism, even as he refused several invitations to discuss the anti-immigration tactics used as part of the leave campaign.

Answering questions after his speech, Gove was asked three times how he squared his condemnation of identity politcs with some of the tactics used by Vote Leave, notably the notorious poster which read: “Turkey (population 76 million) is joining the EU.” Each time he declined to address the specific question.