BUFFOON* Scots voters label PM in waiting Boris as a.. *Tell us something we don’t know guys...
Only 1 in 10 thinks Johnson will improve UK’s standing
SCOTS are most likely to distrust Boris Johnson in a poll showing voters have him pegged as a “buffoon”.
Just one in 10 people in Scotland appears to think the Tory leadership front-runner has any hope of improving Britain’s standing in the world.
Wider findings across the UK show a majority of 64 per cent distrust him – but it rises to 74 per cent in Scotland. The remainder do not have a clear view either way.
The survey of 1703 adults, published yesterday, also reveals a pitiful two per cent view Johnson as “statesman-like”.
And 39 per cent of voters would label him a buffoon.
The poll by Best for Britain – a campaign group fighting to stop Brexit – was published after Johnson was caught up in the resignation of the UK’s ambassador to the US.
Scottish Labour MP Martin Whitfield, who supports a second referendum on Europe, said: “Boris Johnson simply can’t BY ANDY PHILIP reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk be trusted on the international stage. He was the worst foreign secretary in living memory and has thrown one of our most senior diplomats under the bus to appease Donald Trump.
“The strength of opposition to Mr Johnson is particularly strong in Scotland but even Tories and Leave voters don’t trust him on the global stage.
“It is now vital that the public, not Mr Johnson, has the final say on Brexit.”
Best for Britain chief executive Naomi Smith said: “These results show the country is anti-Boris Johnson. And that’s no surprise – in one fell swoop he made us look like cowards to the US and idiots to Europe.”
Last week, Johnson finally admitted he should have stood up more for Britain’s ambassador to the US, Kim Darroch. And confidential memos outlining Darroch’s view of “inept” Trump were leaked, sparking the row.
The diplomat was publicly insulted by US president Donald Trump for doing his job.
Johnson had failed to emphatically support Darroch’s position before the ambassador resigned.
It has also emerged that campaigner Gina Miller and her legal team have written to Johnson arguing any move to prorogue and “bypass” Parliament “would be an abuse of his powers” and would result in legal action.
The businesswoman previously went to court and won the right for Parliament to give its consent ahead of Government triggering Article 50 to begin the Brexit process. She revealed that a letter from her legal team went to the Tory leadership contender on Thursday.
She said it “was to say that if he became prime minister that we believe that that would be beyond his powers, and relying on the judgment in my case in 2017, where the Supreme Court expressly said that Parliament could not be bypassed”.
Tory former international development secretary Priti Patel, who is backing Johnson said she was “not at all surprised” by possible legal action, as she hit out at the “absolutely relentless movement to delay Brexit”.
She told Sky News: “It’s now down to MPs and a new government to actually take action, not for third parties by going through the courts.
She added that the public “want to see a Government now, with renewed conviction, get out there and do exactly what it said it will do, which is now to deliver Brexit”.