Tory Minister comes out against all devolution, becoming the 2nd in the past two weeks.

In what comes as yet another in a series of difficult stories for the governing party, the Minister for Space, Research and Innovation Padanub has publicly come out against devolution. He becomes the second high profile Conservative to have done so, following LotHoL Baron Blackmore reiteration of past opposition last week.

The comments were made in a Commons debate on the “Referendum (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) Bill”, which devolves the ability to call independence referenda in the cases of Scotland and Wales and a border poll in the case of NI to the devolved institutions. The TPM bill has been backed by the Labour NI Spokesperson, however has been opposed by the Conservatives, Lib Dems and LPUK, with some suggestions it violates the GFA.

 In the debate, Padanub described devolution as “awful, unwieldy and brings nothing useful to the table of the advancement of society and any attempts to further it are plain electioneering and pandering to nationalist sentiment.” The comments were hear heared by Akc8, who apparently leads the “New Britain” party, a fringe group.

In a recent Question Time session, the Business Secretary Tommy2Boys said they did not support the comments, however did not speak further on the matter.

This comes after the LotHoLs controversial calls for the end to devolution. The Conservatives at that time said those comments did not reflect their view, however the more Tory MPs say this line, the harder to distance themselves from it it becomes.

The Tories gave the following comment:
“Don’t you have other stuff to report”

They followed that up with this comment: 

“The government is fully committed to devolution where it is wanted and if it delivers measurable policy benefits. Indeed, we wish to see the devolution of Corporation Tax as soon as it is possible with a full consultation on the issue coming in the next few days. It was an off the cuff comment made by the Minister and they have had a stern talking to.”

The LPUK gave the following statement:

“This is a shocking view for a member of the government to have. I can hardly say I’m surprised given that this Tory government constantly ignore the Senedd. If the tories do not sack him, it looks like CCR has gone out of the window and that they think his views on devolution are acceptable.”

Labour have yet to comment.