Theresa May to deliver farewell message for Scots

Theresa May is making what could be her final visit to Scotland as Prime Minister and is expected to say she is confident her successor at Number 10 will continue work to strengthen the union.

She's making the speech before the Conservative Party leadership hustings on Friday, where Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt will pitch to the party membership.

In her speech, the Prime Minister is expected to say: "I am confident that whoever succeeds me in 10 Downing Street will make the union their priority.

"He will be building on work done over the last three years, during which time strengthening the union has become an explicit priority of government.

"The job of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland brings with it privileges and responsibilities which you only really feel once the black door closes behind you.

"One of the first and greatest is the duty you owe to strengthen the union, to govern on behalf of the whole United Kingdom, to respect the identities of every citizen of the UK - English and Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish.

"And to ensure that we can go on facing the future together, overcoming obstacles together, and achieving more together than we ever could apart - a union of nations and people.''

At Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons on Wednesday, Mrs May dismissed suggestions the UK Government will carry out a review of Scottish devolution.

Scotland Office minister Lord Duncan said the exercise would be a "simple straightforward way of making sure devolution is working as best as it can be''.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, however, described the supposed review as a "desperate act'' from Mrs May.

Writing on Twitter, Ms Sturgeon insisted: "It's for the Scottish people - not a Tory PM - to consider and decide what future we want for our Parliament and country.''

But ahead of Mrs May's visit, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said there is now nothing her successor can do to "undo the damage to the unionist cause which has been inflicted'' during her time in office.

Ms Sturgeon said: "Scotland is heading inexorably towards independence - that will be Theresa May's legacy.

"The Tories' behaviour towards Scotland in the three years since the Brexit vote has been high-handed, arrogant and dismissive.

"They have demolished any notion of a respect agenda and have destroyed their own claims that the union is in any meaningful way a partnership of equals. People across Scotland can now see that more plainly than ever.''

"Theresa May's so-called review of devolution is too little, too late - it is reminiscent of John Major's doomed 'taking stock' exercise in the 1990s, which only accelerated the pace towards the devolution referendum and the creation of Holyrood.

• theresa may