Nicola Sturgeon predicts Tory doom in Scotland if PM does not quit

Nicola Sturgeon today suggested the Conservative Party will be doomed in Scotland if Boris Johnson stays on as Prime Minister after Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross called on him to quit. 

The SNP leader questioned how Mr Ross ‘can ever ask anybody to vote for a party led by Boris Johnson’ given that last week he said the premier should resign. 

Ms Sturgeon repeated her own call for Mr Johnson to quit over the Downing Street party row as she said she believes ‘the office of prime minister and the interests of the country would be enhanced’ by his departure. 

Nicola Sturgeon today suggested the Conservative Party will be doomed in Scotland if Boris Johnson stays on as Prime Minister after Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross called on him to quit

The SNP leader questioned how Mr Ross ‘can ever ask anybody to vote for a party led by Boris Johnson’ given that last week he said the premier should resign

Mr Ross said last week that Mr Johnson’s position was ‘no longer tenable’ after fresh revelations about Covid rule-busting gatherings in Downing Street.   

Conservative MSPs at Holyrood backed Mr Ross as the Scottish Tories openly revolted against the Prime Minister. 

The Conservative Party civil war then intensified as Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg labelled Mr Ross a ‘lightweight figure’. 

Ms Sturgeon today said that Mr Ross ‘was right’ to call for Mr Johnson to resign as she suggested the Tory civil war could have major implications for the Conservative Party’s electoral hopes in Scotland. 

The Scottish First Minister was asked during an interview on Sky News whether she believes Mr Ross should consider his position if Mr Johnson clings on. 

She replied: ‘Look, I think you will find very few, if any, people in the Scottish Parliament, and probably across Scotland, who think anything other than that Boris Johnson should resign.

‘He appears to have been serially breaching Covid regulations but perhaps most importantly for somebody in his position, he has, apparently, not been honest and truthful about it in the accounts he has given to the House of Commons.

‘So these are really serious allegations levelled at the Prime Minister.

‘Look, I am a critic of Boris Johnson at the best of times, I don’t think it is any secret that I think the office of prime minister and the interests of the country would be enhanced by Boris Johnson’s departure.

‘But there are big, big issues of trust and integrity at stake now and that is why I do think Boris Johnson should resign.

‘Douglas Ross, I think, was right to call for his resignation. If that resignation doesn’t happen then, yeah, I think there are questions about how the Scottish Conservatives can ever ask anybody to vote for a party led by Boris Johnson.’ 

It was suggested to Ms Sturgeon that Mr Johnson resigning would be a big loss to the SNP because he has acted as a ‘recruiting sergeant’ for the party.   

Ms Sturgeon said: ‘Boris Johnson is opposed, I think, by many, many people across Scotland.

‘I would guess, and I think opinion polls bear this out, by the majority of people in Scotland.

‘But it is not just about Boris Johnson the individual, it is about a Conservative Party that enabled and facilitated somebody like Boris Johnson becoming prime minister in the first place.

‘It is not as if these character flaws that people are now seeing very clearly in Boris Johnson weren’t known about before.

Mr Ross said last week that Mr Johnson’s position was ‘no longer tenable’ after fresh revelations about Covid rule-busting gatherings in Downing Street

‘So yeah, Douglas Ross has now called for his resignation but Douglas Ross enthusiastically supported Boris Johnson in his attempt to become leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister.’ 

The SNP leader said there is a ‘bigger issue at stake here’ as she seized on the Tory civil war to try to bolster her case for Scottish independence.  

‘People in Scotland haven’t voted majority or in anywhere close to that, Conservative in my entire lifetime and yet for most of my lifetime we have been governed by Tory governments,’ she said. 

‘There is a systemic democratic deficit at the heart of how Scotland is governed which is one of the many reasons, as you know, I support Scotland becoming an independent country so that we can choose our own governments rather than have governments we don’t want foisted upon us.’

Ms Sturgeon has said she wants to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence by the end of next year.