Boris Johnson set for Scotland visit amid Partygate row
Awkward! Boris runs the gauntlet of Scotland visit TODAY saying he is ‘getting on with the job’ despite Partygate chaos… but he will not meet Scottish Tory leader who has called for him to QUIT
- Boris Johnson is today undertaking a ‘levelling up’ tour with a visit to Scotland
- PM not due to meet Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross who called for him to quit
- Visit to Scotland comes amid rumbling Partygate scandal and crisis in Ukraine
Boris Johnson will today visit Scotland to tell voters he is ‘getting on with the job’ amid the rumbling Partygate scandal.
The Prime Minister is undertaking a ‘levelling up’ tour of the UK, starting in Scotland before then heading to the north west of England.
But the trip north of the border risks being an awkward affair given that Conservative MSPs at Holyrood have been in open revolt against him and have called on him to resign.
Mr Johnson is not expected to meet Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross who has labelled the PM’s position ‘untenable’.
The trip comes after Mr Johnson received a questionnaire from the Metropolitan Police on Friday asking him to give an account of his involvement in alleged Downing Street parties.
The premier has seven days to respond before officers then assess his submission and decide whether to impose a fine.
Boris Johnson will today visit Scotland to tell voters he is ‘getting on with the job’ amid the rumbling Partygate scandal. The PM is pictured in Warsaw, Poland on February 10
Mr Johnson is not expected to meet Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross who has labelled the PM’s position ‘untenable’
Mr Johnson is expected to use his ‘levelling up’ tour to tout his shake-up of Downing Street staff as he seeks to stabilise his premiership.
He is due to visit a manufacturing site in Scotland before heading to an oncology centre tackling coronavirus backlogs in the north west of England.
Mr Johnson said ahead of the trip: ‘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.
‘Access to good healthcare, a good education, skilled work, reliable transport – none of this should depend on where you live. We’re changing the rules of the game to put fairness back at the heart of the system and focusing on the priorities that really matter to people. This is our mission and we’re getting on with delivering it.’
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said the visit should be Mr Johnson’s ‘farewell tour’.
He told Sky News: ‘This is a Prime Minister who is not going to meet his own Scottish Conservative leader – even the Scottish Conservatives want Boris Johnson to go.
‘I hope this is his farewell tour, he is a man who is deeply unpopular up here.’
Mr Johnson could face a frosty welcome upon arrival in Scotland given the Tory civil war over the Partygate scandal.
Mr Ross has said that Mr Johnson’s position is ‘no longer tenable’ and has called for him to resign.
The Scottish Tory leader is understood to have sent a letter of no confidence in Mr Johnson to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs.
The comments from Mr Ross prompted a slap down from Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg who described the Moray MP as a ‘lightweight’, fuelling rising tensions.
Fifteen Tory MPs have publicly called for Mr Johnson to quit, while more are thought to have privately written to the 1922 Committee calling for a no confidence vote.
More are poised to do so if the PM 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 Sir Graham and would be ousted if more than half of his MPs subsequently voted against him.
Scotland Yard said last week that it was sending Partygate questionnaires to more than 50 people in Number 10 and Whitehall.
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’.
The Metropolitan Police is investigating 12 events with reports claiming that Mr Johnson attended as many as six of them.
The Times has said that even if the PM is fined he will not resign, in a move that would be likely to trigger Tory MPs to force a vote on his leadership.
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