Dorrell Signals U-Turn On Scotland

The Shadow Health Secretary said, "We can't go on believing that the electorate got it wrong. Clearly, the electorate are the ultimate arbiters".

Mr Dorrell told BBC radio that Labour's promised Scottish Parliament would not deliver all the expectations the public had of it - and it was "essential" Nationalists should not then gain from this.

"What is essential in my view is that it is the Scottish Conservative Party that can show how Conservatism within the Union can deliver the things that people actually want - better hospitals, better schools and so on," said Mr Dorrell.

The Shadow Health Secretary's remarks have already drawn fire from Scottish Conservatives. Struan Stevenson, the defeated Conservative candidate for Dumfries criticised Mr Dorrell saying his comments on devolution had come, "late in the day".

Mr Stevenson said the new Labour Prime Minister could now set the pace of the debate on devolution and not the Conservatives, who could no longer call themselves a unionist party as they had no MPs outside England.

Mr Dorrell's opinions on Scotland remain to be fleshed out but he did say,the party would need to hold meetings in Scotland, "so we can work out how the Conservative Party can rebuild its position in Scotland and be the authentic voice of the Unionist Conservative point of view in Scotland."

The party must listen to the electorate, but could not ignore the "pressures" that would build up unless the contradictions in Labour's proposals were addressed, he said.

"I am against the Labour Party's proposals because I think they will put great strains on the Union. What I am also against is continuing to say we got it right and the electorate got it wrong. That is no a sustainable position for a party in a democracy."