TORIES PAY PRICE FOR PARTYGATE
Scottish leader Douglas Ross blames voter ‘backlash’ over PM’s lockdown fine as party slumps to third spot in council elections
BORIS Johnson will lose power at the next election unless he responds to the Partygate backlash, Douglas Ross has warned.
The leader of the Scottish Conservatives yesterday blamed the furore over Downing Street parties and the Prime Minister’s lockdown fine for the Scottish Tories crashing to third place behind Labour.
He admitted yesterday’s result must be a wake-up call and said Mr Johnson must demonstrate he can win back those who protested if he is to lead the Tories into the next General Election.
The Scottish Tories lost 62 seats as its share of first preference votes plunged to 19.6 per cent, down 5.9 percentage points compared to the last local elections in 2017.
Overall, the SNP won 34.1 per cent of first preference votes, followed by Labour on 21.7 per cent, the Conservatives on 19.6 per cent, the Liberal Democrats on 8.6 per cent and the Greens on 6 per cent.
Speaking to the Mail following yesterday’s results, Mr Ross said: ‘Certainly a lot
‘Supporters stayed at home’
of our supporters stayed at home. They wanted to register their protest by not voting and it seems from people we spoke to that it was the issue over Partygate.
‘Before the Prime Minister received the fixed penalty notice our campaign was going well, we were getting really good feedback, people liked what we were focusing on in terms of local issues.
‘But as soon as that fixed penalty notice was issued and accepted by the Prime Minister you could just feel a change.’
He said his party was ‘swept away’ in parts of the country because core Tory voters ‘sent a message’ across the UK about Partygate.
But Mr Ross claimed voters did not raise concerns about his own response, which saw him withdraw his vote of no confidence in Mr Johnson because of the Ukraine conflict.
He said: ‘They may not have agreed with it, but it didn’t change their decision to vote, or how to vote, because ultimately for them it seems to have been on the Prime Minister, and that’s what we’ve seen in other areas.
‘I’m sure there were things I could have done differently, we could have done differently.
‘I’m pleased we focused on the local issues but it was very difficult to get cut-through from that.
‘I will share the responsibility, I never try to shirk away from that. But just 12 months ago the party under my leadership delivered the best ever result since devolution, maintaining our place as the main opposition to the SNP and increasing our vote by 100,000.
‘Twelve months on, the big change has been the Prime Minister and Partygate and we have not been immune to the impact of that on our vote, as we have seen in other parts of the UK.’
Mr Ross said the Prime Minister ‘has to respond’ to the verdict from voters.
Asked if Mr Johnson should be considering his future after the Ukraine conflict, he said: ‘Obviously he should be considering these election results, which have been some of the worst we have seen across the UK for a long time.’
Pressed on whether there is a danger that the Conservatives will lose power if the Prime Minister doesn’t respond in the way he wants him to, he said: ‘Well absolutely.
‘You just have to look at the Liberal Democrats winning councils in areas currently held by Conservative MPs, look at Labour making gains in areas.
‘These are seats with similar dissatisfaction from our voters and people refusing to support the party. They are at real risk, and therefore so would be the Government majority.’
He accepted that the result needs to be a ‘wake-up call’ and added: ‘Across the whole UK this is as clear a signal as the public can give that they are unhappy with what is happening.
‘If something doesn’t change then the public won’t just simply come up with a different result just because we are a couple of years down the line.’
Mr Ross said ‘a lot has to happen’ to allow Mr Johnson to lead his party into the next election.
He added: ‘To in any way minimise the losses we have suffered and think that nothing has to change would be completely the wrong approach.’
He added: ‘A number of excellent councillors have not been re-elected at this election, not as a result of what they have done but because of the impact on the party overall. That is the party I lead and therefore I have to take responsibility for that.
‘But I think people also do accept and concede that there has been a protest against the party across the United Kingdom. This is not a Scotland specific issue.’
Asked if it was conceivable that both he and Mr Johnson could lead the party into the next election, he said that ‘we are a long way away from that’ and stressed he would seek to rebuild in Scotland where supporters felt they could not turn out.
On what Mr Johnson needs to do to be able to lead the party into the next election, he said ‘he’s got to look at areas where we have lost and lost heavily’ and show he can win back voters, and said he would do the same.
Mr Ross faced some criticism from within his own party for blaming the result on Partygate.
Former Tory MSP Adam Tomkins said: ‘I’m sorry but this is nonsense. Whatever today’s results show Douglas Ross owns this, not Boris.
‘It was Douglas who U-turned, Douglas who flipped, and Douglas who backed the PM. He and his team need to own the consequences, not pass the buck.’
One current Conservative MSP added: ‘We can win back voters but we need to start strategising immediately because the General Election is very soon and the danger is if there is a narrative of us in third place it is difficult to return.’
‘He must own the consequences’