SCOTLAND is not a country but a “region of the UK”, one of Michael Gove’s most senior advisers has said.
Henry Newman, who according to the UK Government’s special advisers register was paid a six-figure salary to advise Gove at the Levelling Up Department, made the comment on the BBC’s Politics Live.
The BBC panel had been discussing Labour’s manifesto pledge to give 16- and 17-year-olds “the right to vote in all elections”.
As it stands, people aged 16 or over can vote in Holyrood and local election in Scotland but cannot vote for MPs at Westminster, where the age limit is 18.
Darren Jones, Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, denied Labour’s pledge to lower the age across the board was aimed at capitalising on his party’s traditional significant lead over the Conservatives among younger voters.
He said: “The only age group that's now supportive of the Conservatives are over 71. It doesn't matter whether you're 50, 40, 30, or 16.
“We want to extend the rights to 16- and 17-year-olds because I think it's the right thing to do.”
Tory Science Minister Andrew Griffith insisted that the right to vote should remain at 18 – despite being challenged on the Conservative Party’s policy of accepting 15-year-old members and giving them full voting rights.
He claimed the Labour policy was “the most outrageous form of trying to engineer a political system”.
“It's part of an attack on our settled constitution, and it would deliver this [Labour] government a supermajority,” Griffith added.
“It could last a generation, and it could do untold damage to you, your family and your wallet.”
The floor was then passed to Newman, who said: “I think we should of course listen to young people, who wouldn’t think that?
“But it's Nicaragua, Cuba, Ecuador, Ethiopia, North Korea, Indonesia. These are the countries with votes under 18, and I think for this sort of big change …”
Jones could then be heard to chip in from off-screen to say: “Scotland.”
Responding, Newman said: “Scotland isn’t a separate country but a region of the UK. It does have that.”
Ash Sarkar, the Novara Media contributor sat beside Newman on the BBC panel, could be seen to grimace to the camera after his comment.
The Tory adviser went on: “I think if you want to make these sort of big changes put it to the vote and put a referendum.
“That's what we had in 2012, when we changed, there was a referendum on potentially changing the voting system, on an alternative vote, it was roundly defeated.
“I think it is crazy to try and rig the constitution in your favour so you're held in power for years and years.”
Newman’s comment has been met with anger on social media, with one user writing: “Too many British [people] think that Scotland is a region.
“Most people have little knowledge of the circumstances of the Union, what was agreed and what wasn't.
“This isn't a coincidence, it's just tragic that too many Scots aren't sufficiently inquisitive.”
Newman worked with Dominic Cummings on the Vote Leave campaign in the run-up to the Brexit referendum.
He then advised Boris Johnson in Downing Street, where Cummings described him as one of Carrie Johnson's “best friends”.
