Boris jeered by protestors in Scotland
Boris Johnson’s welcome to Scotland was far-from warm on Monday as he made his first Prime Ministerial trip north of the border to a chorus of boos.
The PM was jeered from the off as he arrived in Edinburgh to meet First Minister Nicola Sturgeon amid concerns over a no-deal Brexit, which Scotland voted overwhelmingly against in 2016.
Meanwhile, in Glasgow, dozens of anti-BoJo protestors rallied on the steps of the Royal Concert Hall in Buchanan Street.
Radical Independence members armed with placards and posters with the newly-elected PM’s face on them waved pictures of BoJo with the words “no thanks” written across them. And they chanted the message: “Boris, Boris, Boris; out, out, out.”
Radical Independence tweeted: “Thank you to everyone who turned up to protest Boris Johnson this morning.
“He hid in a military base, and could not walk the streets of Glasgow. “Boris Johnson: No Thanks.” Mr Johnson embarked on his first trip to Scotland since moving into Downing Street last week.
Ahead of her meeting with the PM, Ms Sturgeon warned that the PM’s “hard-line” Government is driving the country towards “disaster” by pushing for a no-deal Brexit.
Mr Johnson also met with Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson as a divide opened up between the two.
While visiting Faslane naval base on the River Clyde, Mr Johnson said the current deal is “dead” and that it has “got to go,” but the EU is refusing to budge.
“My approach is to be very outward going, I don’t want the UK to be aloof or hanging back,” Mr Johnson said.
“I want us to engage, to hold out the hand, to go the extra mile, extra thousand miles... and what we want to do is make it absolutely clear that the backstop is no good. It’s dead, it’s got to go. The withdrawal agreement is dead, it’s got to go.”
The EU has repeatedly said it will not renegotiate the withdrawal agreement it reached with his predecessor Theresa May.
Ms Sturgeon said there is no clarity on how Mr Johnson plans to reach an exit deal with the European Union.
She added: “That makes me think that whatever Boris Johnson might be saying publicly about his preference being to strike a deal, in reality he is really pursuing a no-deal Brexit because that is the logic of the hardline position that he has taken.
“I think that is extremely dangerous for Scotland, indeed for the whole of the UK.”