UK PM hopefuls against Scottish independence vote

PERTH (Britain) • The two Conservative candidates vying to become the United Kingdom's next prime minister on Tuesday reiterated their opposition to another referendum on Scottish independence, as they held their only campaign hustings event there.

Front runner Liz Truss vowed she would "not allow" a second vote within a decade in Scotland over whether it remains within the UK, while her rival Rishi Sunak said he could not "imagine the circumstances" in which he would grant one.

Scots in 2014 voted narrowly against leaving the UK, but First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's Scottish National Party (SNP) argues that Brexit has transformed the constitutional debate, and wants to hold a second plebiscite in October next year.

The Supreme Court in London plans to hold hearings on Oct 11 to 12 this year on whether that would be legal without approval from the UK government, which has so far declined to permit another vote.

"If I am elected as prime minister, I will not allow another independence referendum," Ms Truss told Conservative Party members at the hustings event in the Scottish city Perth, to loud cheers.

"We're not just neighbours, we're family and I will never ever let our family be split up," she earlier told the audience.

Opinion polls show voters in Scotland near evenly divided over the issue, nearly eight years after they convincingly backed staying in the centuries-old union with the rest of the UK.

SNP lawmaker Kirsten Oswald said Tuesday's hustings had been "depressing watching" for people in Scotland, arguing that the candidates had "repeatedly attempted to tell us tonight what Scotland wants".

Also on Tuesday, it emerged that Ms Truss - the favourite in polls to become prime minister next month - had previously suggested Britons lacked "skill and application" and needed to work harder.

In an embarrassing leaked audio recording, which dates from her time as a senior minister in the Finance Ministry from 2017 to 2019, Ms Truss said workers' "mindset and attitude" were partly to blame for the UK's relatively poor productivity.

"It's working culture basically," she said in the audio, obtained by newspaper The Guardian, adding that British workers needed "more graft".

"If you go to China, it's quite different, I can assure you."

Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to stand down on Sept 5, when either Ms Truss or Mr Sunak will be declared the winner of the summer-long leadership contest marked by hostile briefing wars between the two camps.

The victor will take charge the following day. The Tories' roughly 200,000-strong membership who will decide the contest have already starting voting.

The incendiary remarks by Ms Truss echo controversial arguments made in a 2012 book she co-authored, Britannia Unchained, in which British workers were described as among the "worst idlers in the world".

Asked about it at a leadership debate last month, Ms Truss distanced herself from the contentious assessment, claiming co-author and Sunak supporter Dominic Raab, who is currently justice minister, had penned it.

Mr Raab subsequently said the writers of the book had agreed on "collective responsibility" over its contents.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE