London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Boris Johnson makes the case for the union (with vaccines)

Boris Johnson makes the case for the union (with vaccines)

Each stop on prime minister’s trip to Scotland talked up the union’s role in fighting the virus.
For Boris Johnson, the U.K.’s (so far) successful vaccine rollout is not just the route out of the pandemic — it’s becoming a strong argument for averting constitutional crisis.

The U.K. prime minister traveled to Scotland on Thursday with a clear goal in mind: to demonstrate just how much he values Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom — and how much Scotland, in turn, is benefiting from being part of the union during a pandemic.

Each stop on the trip was to a site related to the fight against the virus and — in each instance — Johnson pointedly highlighted how the work being done in Scotland was intrinsically linked to its place in the U.K. The Glasgow testing center he visited was processing samples “from across the whole of the country,” he told broadcasters; the vaccination site in the same city had been set up by “the British army;” and the Valneva vaccine factory in Livingston would go on to produce “60 million doses for the whole of the country.”

It was a sign, however, of just how precarious Scotland’s place in the union now appears that Johnson was dogged by questions on why he had come at all, and on the growing pressure for a second referendum on Scottish independence. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, whose Scottish National Party is forecast to make gains at May’s Scottish Parliament elections, had said she wasn’t “ecstatic” about his trip.

“People like me and Boris Johnson have to be in work for reasons people understand, but we don’t have to travel across the U.K. We have a duty to lead by example,” she said on Wednesday.

Johnson insisted he was “here in my capacity as prime minister of the whole country — to thank hard-working officials and public servants across the whole of Britain who are doing fantastic work.”

He sought to contrast the urgent work of ending the pandemic with “pointless constitutional wrangling” over the SNP’s call for a second referendum on Scottish independence (pressure for which would increase significantly if the party secures a majority in May).

“Endless talk about a referendum, without any clear description of what the constitutional situation would be after that referendum, is completely irrelevant now to the concerns of most people who I think want us to beat this pandemic and come through it strongly together,” Johnson told broadcasters.

Johnson refused to be drawn on how he’d react if the SNP found a legal way to hold a referendum without direct consent from Westminster — something the SNP indicated at the weekend it would seek to do if it wins its majority, by legislating in the Scottish Parliament for a such a vote and essentially daring the Westminster government to challenge its legality in the courts.

But putting the pandemic response (and himself) center-stage is not a risk-free strategy for Johnson as he tries to make the case for the union.

While the vaccine rollout is indisputably going well (7.5 million people across the U.K. have now received their first dose, according to latest data released Thursday), it is the exception rather than the rule when it comes to the U.K.’s record on coronavirus. The country has the highest death toll in Europe, and has also been hit harder economically than most other wealthy countries.

Previous polls have shown that Scottish voters believe Sturgeon, not Johnson, has done a better job overall during the crisis. The prime minister himself is deeply unpopular among Scottish voters, and polling suggests the harder Westminster pushes back, the stronger pro-referendum sentiment becomes.

But this week’s trip suggests Johnson is undaunted by such data — and unwilling to yield any ground in his opposition to a second referendum. With the future of a 300-year-old union at stake, the prime minister has to hope he’s right.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×