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Boris Johnson is “unfit for office”, former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has said. It comes as the PM has been branded a “charlatan” by an SNP MP at an independence rally.
The Prime Minister has been under mounting pressure in recent weeks over parties held in and around Downing Street during lockdown – one of which he confirmed he attended.
Baroness Davidson, who took her seat in the House of Lords last year after stepping down at Holyrood, was a vocal opponent of the Prime Minister’s Tory leadership bid as well as being steadfastly against Brexit – a campaign led by Mr Johnson.
Speaking to the Times, she said if she was an MP, she would submit a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister to the 1922 Committee – 54 of which are needed to trigger a vote on his leadership.
Baroness Davidson told the newspaper there is no “deep-rooted hatred” between the two, but she added: “I didn’t support him for the leadership and I believe what has been exposed to have happened in the last few weeks shows that he’s unfit for office but, I mean, he’s perfectly convivial company.”
As well as anger over the lockdown parties, Baroness Davidson claimed some in the Tory party are tired of the “drama” coming from Number 10.
“I think one of the reasons that the Prime Minister is in such a perilous situation is not just because of the apparent rule-breaking, although that is a big part of it, but because there is a fatigue even within the party and certainly by my MP colleagues for the drama that has been emanating from Number 10,” she said.
The Prime Minister has struggled with support north of the border amid this most recent scandal, with current Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross – along with most of his MSPs – publicly calling on him to leave.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been branded a “charlatan” by an SNP MP at an independence rally.
Stephen Flynn was among those who marched from Glasgow’s George Square to Glasgow Green on Saturday, calling on the Prime Minister to quit over parties held at Downing Street during lockdown.
The Aberdeen South MP said Scotland’s problems would not be fixed by Mr Johnson’s resignation and only Scottish independence would be the way forward.
“As you know, as I know, as everyone up and down Scotland knows, this Prime Minister is a charlatan, this Prime Minister is corrupt and this Prime Minister is a liar,” he said.
“The reality is, over the course of the last year or two, what we’ve seen is a Prime Minister who’s just taken £20 away from the poorest in society when we’re on the brink of a cost-of-living crisis.”
He added: “This is a man who partied … whilst people across Scotland and across the UK were dying.
“Boris Johnson needs to go and he needs to go now.”
Issues in Scotland with the UK Government “don’t start and they don’t stop with Boris Johnson”, Mr Flynn said as he touted the need for the country to leave the union.
“Not since 1955 – some 70 years – have the people of Scotland endorsed the Tories at the ballot box, yet we have been the ones who have had to bear the brunt of their policies.
“Their policies hammer the poorest in society while they feather their own corporate nests, while they continue repeatedly to ignore the democratic views of the people of Scotland.
“So, Boris Johnson, doesn’t just need to go – the Tories need to go too.”
The SNP business spokesman at Westminster went on to describe the UK Parliament as “an antique” which “doesn’t care about you or me or anyone else up and down Scotland”.
He continued: “Let’s be done with Boris Johnson, let’s be done with the Tories, let’s be done with Westminster and let’s be done with their union.
“Let’s build something better, let’s build something that’s got compassion at its heart, that’s got people at its heart, that’s got our values and our principles at its heart.”
Alba Party MP Neale Hanvey also addressed the march, calling on the Scottish Government to call a constitutional convention “to chart our path to independence”.
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