Boris Johnson will not meet Scots Tory leader who demanded he quit when PM goes to Scotland
Boris Johnson will travel to Scotland this week as he seeks to recover from Partygate – but will not meet the Scottish Tory leader who demanded he quit over No10 parties.
The Prime Minister is expected to visit a manufacturing site in Scotland during the Parliamentary recess during a UK tour he hopes will switch focus on his levelling-up agenda.
But the Scottish Conservatives have confirmed to MailOnline that Mr Johnson will not be spending time with Douglas Ross, who last month publicly called for his resignation.
The Moray MP said the PM’s position was ‘untenable’ after he admitted attending a No10 party during lockdown.
His remarks – made in a television interview, prompted a public row between the English and Scottish Conservatives, with now Brexit Opportunities Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg branding Mr Ross a ‘lightweight’ figure of low importance.
A Scottish Conservative spokeswoman told MailOnline today that Mr Johnson’s was a governmental rather than political visit and ‘Douglas Ross will not be meeting with the Prime Minister on this occasion’.
The Prime Minister is expected to visit a manufacturing site in Scotland during the Parliamentary recess during a UK tour he hopes will switch focus on his levelling-up agenda.
A Scottish Conservative spokeswoman told MailOnline today that Mr Johnson’s was a governmental rather than political visit and ‘Douglas Ross will not be meeting with the Prime Minister on this occasion’.
No 10 said the Prime Minister is to start the week with a visit to Scotland, where he is a massively unpopular figure.
He made himself Minister for the Union in 2019 but his subsequent visits north of the border have often proved controversial.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: ‘Boris Johnson is not fit to be Prime Minister and he is single the biggest threat to the future of the UK.’
In a statement, Mr Johnson said: ‘I’m getting out of London this week and taking a simple message with me, this Government is getting on with the job of uniting and levelling up the country.’
The calls for the Prime Minister to go will only grow louder and more widespread if he cannot convince police he was not in breach of regulations at up to six events.
As he employs the help of personal lawyers, the Telegraph cited Mr Johnson’s allies in reporting he plans to argue he was working in his official Downing Street flat on the night of the alleged ‘Abba party’ in November 2020.
The Times said that even if he is fined he will not resign, in a move that would be likely to trigger Tory MPs to force a vote of confidence in his leadership.
Scotland Yard says the questionnaires ask for an ‘account and explanation of the recipient’s participation in an event’ and have ‘formal legal status and must be answered truthfully’.
Fifteen Tory MPs have publicly called for Mr Johnson to quit, while more are thought to have privately written to the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories calling for a no-confidence vote.
More are poised to do so if the Prime Minister is found to have broken his own coronavirus laws, or further damaging details emerge from the Sue Gray inquiry.
He will face a vote of no confidence if 54 Conservative MPs write to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady, and would be ousted if more than half of his MPs subsequently voted against him.