Luke Graham was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Ochil and Perthshire South from 2017 to 2019, the candidate in Perth and Kinross-shire in 2024, and a former head of the Downing Street Union Unit.
Well, the results are in, and for Scotland and Wales, there were few surprises.
For months the SNP and Plaid Cymru (PC) led the polls, by the final week of the devolved campaigns, the question was not if the SNP and PC were going to be the biggest parties, but if they were going to secure absolute majorities.
Thankfully, neither party did. And although PC can boast their biggest electoral breakthrough since devolution began, the SNP can only point to a dramatic fall in vote share from (47.7 per cent in 2021 to 38.2 per cent in 2026 through the constituency vote and from 40.3 per cent to 27.2 per cent in the list votes). However, due to the fractured nature of the unionist vote, both the SNP and PC can claim government and lead minority administrations, working to implement their plans to break up the UK.
Indeed, only a few weeks ago, John Swinney, SNP First Minister of Scotland, said how having nationalist First Ministers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland would “fundamentally change the UK” and lead to the three devolved administrations “cooperating” to change the dynamic of the UK. To be clear – this means work together to undermine the UK, weaken the bonds that tie the people of these islands together and break up our country.
Despite leading minority administrations in Wales and Scotland, PC and the SNP have their hands on well-oiled devolved administrations, staffed by highly trained British civil servants, who, despite being part of “one civil service” see their loyalty more to Cardiff Bay and Holyrood than Westminster.
For those in London who think PC or the SNP are like “Celtic liberal democrats” focused on “issues in Scotland and Wales” they need to look again. These parties have nationalistic separatism in their DNA, and despite being leading minority devolved governments they are going to use every trick to try and achieve their goals of shattering the UK.
While the national press talks about the drama between Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham, nationalist forces are quietly taking control of education, health, culture, sport, transport and using those policy areas to not only serve local citizens but find wedge issues to turn fellow Britons against each other.
Now you would think that with this long predicted electoral outcome, Westminster and Whitehall would be well prepared with a raft of pro-UK measures and uniting causes to bring the country together. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The party with its hand on the tiller of the UK government is the party that brought us this disastrous form of devolved government; so blinded by Labour dominance in Scotland and Wales in the late 1990s, Labour constructed forms of devolved government that allowed for the systems which handed nationalists the power, the money and a political asymmetry which means it is almost impossible for Westminster to rebalance or be seen “as the good guys”.
Devolution is a fine principle – I remember learning about the “new” devolved systems as a student and thought they were a great idea – as a Conservative, how can you beat bringing power and money closer to the people? Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out as intended – the devolved administrations of Scotland and Wales have underserved the people of Wales and Scotland. Education, health, transport, employment – none better than pre-devolved results, the is especially clear in the Welsh health system and Scottish education, which under the SNP, has smashed through the floor of international league tables – as Audit Scotland can attest.
Being free from Westminster was meant to unleash the Scottish innovation and Welsh industry, instead we see these great nations falling behind in UK and European league tables.
The 2024 General Election presented an opportunity for new Scottish and Welsh Labour MPs to reframe the pro-UK argument. However, I haven’t seen any of the new 2024 flock grasping the levers of power to drive forward pro-Scottish/Welsh and pro-British initiatives with the same veracity as the SNP or PC. They seem happy to be in and believe that incremental improvement will suffice. It won’t.
We need action now.
The Labour government needs people who love Scotland and Wales as much as they love England to push as many pro-UK initiatives as possible. This doesn’t mean paying lip service or devolving more power, it means working, grinding through every piece of policy to ensure Scotland and Wales are represented and benefit, while pushing a great Britishness in our policy making, tone and outlook.
No one should be bullied into having to take the nationalist lines of being Welsh or Scottish or else. People can be proud of being Scottish and British, Welsh, and British, Northern Irish and British, English, and British and whatever combination their family happens to be.
Now the UK Government just needs to give them something to be proud about.