PRIME Minister Rishi Sunak has dubbed Holyrood a "devolved assembly" following his speech at the Scottish Tory party conference.
The Tory PM made the comments on the first day of the party summit at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow.
Sunak's speech was due to kick off at 10am, the same time the news that BBC chairman Richard Sharp resigned following an investigation that concluded his appointment breached rules.
The PM's speech was delayed by around 30 minutes, before he took the stage in Glasgow.
Our reporter at the conference has said the Tory party is now trying to shut down the post-speech huddle with the Prime Minister.
Initially, only seven hand-picked journalists were invited to the sit down with Sunak, but the rest of the press attending joined anyway.
Journalists were left waiting for almost 30 minutes for the PM to arrive.
Every Scottish journalist at the Tory conference just voted to reject terms laid down by No 10: either Rishi Sunak gets asked just one question about BBC chair Richard Sharp, or he doesn’t meet us. Absolutely wild scenes as the Conservative PM hides from media scrutiny
— Xander (@xanderescribe) April 28, 2023
Sunak's speech, which lasted less than eight minutes, took a pop at Nicola Sturgeon for "quitting Bute House to take up driving lessons".
"Because someone's got to drive the motorhome after all," he added.
During a question and answer session with conference delegates, Sunak was asked what he saw as the future of devolution in Scotland.
"One is we can't devolve and forget," Sunak said.
"Scotland already is the most powerful devolved assembly anywhere in the world.
"So all this talk of needing any more powers is pretty normal, right, because the SNP and Scottish Government don’t even use the powers they already have, so we should stop talking about any more.
"What we need to do is hold them to account, as we're all doing."
Sunak said he would hold the Scottish Government to account to ensure there is compatibility of data across the UK, and said the Tories believe in “real devolution”.
"We believe decisions should be made as close to people as possible, and we know that in the same way that Westminster doesn't always know best, it's not the case that in Scotland that the SNP and the Holyrood Government always know best," Sunak said.
"So what we believe is we can devolve power to local communities, and that's what we've done."
The PM said the UK Government is “far more engaged and involved when it comes to levelling up”.
"We don't have to just hand everything over to the Scottish Government," he said, "I think that's real devolution, or devolution in action."
During his short speech, Sunak claimed that Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross "fought hard" to deny Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP a majority in Holyrood.
“And with all of your help, he did that,” the PM said.
“Imagine how different things would have been if she’d got that majority.
“She would have pushed an even more divisive agenda.
“But that didn't happen, you changed the course, and now she's gone.
“So I think all of you ought to join me in saying thank you to Douglas.”
Sunak also paid tribute to Scottish Secretary Alister Jack as an “incredible voice for Scotland" before taking another pop at the SNP.
“It used to be that the SNP couldn't focus on Scotland's priorities because they were obsessed about independence.
“Now even they admit that there is not a sustained majority in support of independence, and yet they're still distracted.
“And as many of you have rightly said, if the SNP can't sort out the mess that Nicola Sturgeon left that party, how on earth can they sort out the mess that Nicola Sturgeon has left Scotland's public services in?”
The PM said Scotland should have a government in Holyrood focused on priorities “not constitutional abstractions”, and joked that while the SNP are struggling to find auditors, “we can still audit their record in government”.
