BORIS Johnson arrogantly announced back in July last year that he would be the first UK Prime Minister to also hold the title of Minister for the Union. This dodgy gimmick was an essential commitment for Johnson when he first became Prime Minister. He painted a picture that he would be a Prime Minister for all members of the Union, “the awesome foursome” being the slogan for this particular commitment from Number 10.

Much like most things that come out of Boris Johnson’s mouth, however, all we have seen from our Minister for the Union was lip service being paid. It was revealed earlier this week that preserving and promoting the Union meant so much to the UK Government that it actually left this counterfeit title out of parliament biographies.

The role did not appear in Boris’s responsibilities as Prime Minister. Once prompted, this error was rectified by the Government. Ridiculously, however, when you go on to its website the responsibilities section for our Minister for the Union remains ominously blank.

Could it be that this defender of the Union is so engrossed with the role that he is meticulously researching how to put the Great back into Great Britain, and that’s why we still do not know what the responsibilities of this position actually are?

No, the reality is that Boris Johnson and his Tory chums simply do not care about Scotland or the rest of the UK. This title is just another attempt to put Scotland back in our box. This is evident with the lack of attention and effort that has been put into the position since last July. A political stunt is all this position is and ever will be. Boris Johnson’s extreme right-wing government is in full control now and us here in Scotland are simply an afterthought.

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Lord Dunlop was appointed by Theresa May to set out a review on “strengthening the Union”. We are still waiting for this to be completed after several delays.

I assume this review is not high on the Government’s agenda and never has been. The days of this kind of pandering being acceptable to us here in Scotland are well and truly over. Perhaps this is why we are seeing such a lack of effort from Boris in his role as the saviour of the Union – he simply knows that he is fighting an unwinnable battle.

Then we have the pledges to strengthen the relationship between the countries of the UK that Johnson made during his campaign to become Tory leader – they are laughable. Since becoming Prime Minister, he has done nothing but sever the ties even further between the London-centric parliament in Westminster and those of the devolved nations.

I speak as an MP in Scotland, but I am pretty sure that representatives in Wales and Northern Ireland feel the same way about Boris’ arrogant, bullish and reckless handling of the Brexit situation. I cannot see a shred of evidence that shows he has put in more effort than his predecessors – such as David Cameron and Theresa May – to make our nations relationship with Westminster stronger.

Boris claimed he would be putting more emphasis on this task of strengthening the Union. Once Brexit was done on January 31, it would be full speed ahead with this task. He would be spending more time in Scotland so we could warm to our Eton emperor. What Boris and countless entitled, privileged politicians before him fail to understand is that in Scotland we do not want a pat on the back or a gold sticker for being involved.

What we want is to exercise our democratic will and not be told when and where we can do it.

We have no interest in Boris changing a couple of job titles and visiting us more frequently. This simply is not good enough and never will be.

The reality of the situation here in Scotland is that support for independence is higher than it has ever been before. People in Scotland cannot get behind this establishment any longer. We see through the unfulfilled promises from out-of-touch Westminster politicians. We did not vote for Brexit and we certainly did not vote for Boris Johnson.

We have our mandate for indyref2 – we had back in 2016 after the Scottish Parliament election. This mandate has only been strengthened by SNP victories in every election in Scotland since then. It is simply untenable for the Tories to keep holding on to the position of rejecting a referendum and they know this is the case.

With every passing day people are seeing what this UK Government in doing to people in Scotland. Only three months ago we rejected Boris, Brexit, xenophobia and racism, instead, we voted for Scotland’s right to choose our own future.

The Union is doomed, and it is my hope that Boris will be the first and last Minister for the Union.