The Boris bandwagon is heading for IndyRef2

Boris Johnson’s bandwagon swept through Perthshire on Friday.

And it will now, inevitably, f inish its journey at 10 Downing Street.

It would perhaps be more cautious to temper this with a “barring disaster”. But not even disasters stop Johnson. The revelations about his domestic dispute with partner Carrie Symonds didn’t put a dent in his march towards becoming PM.

His histor y of racist language, homophobia , ant i - Scot t i shnes s , philandering and lying have put no rein on his ambition.

His opponent Jeremy Hunt is languishing and appears to have pinned his hopes on a good showing in the next scheduled TV debate on the BBC on Friday.

Best of luck with that, Jeremy, but the early signs are not good.

According to one opinion poll, 74 per cent of Conservative Party members now back Johnson while 77 per cent think his private life is not relevant in the leadership election.

The future of the country is in the hands of these respondents and that is a worrying thought.

For an increasing number of Scott ish politicians, the arrival of this unwanted PM-elect merely signals the unof f icial start of a second independence refererendum.

Richard Leonard was the latest to acknowledge this yesterday as he affirmed that Labour would not formal ly work a longside the Tor ies under these circumstances.

That’s not just the right decision. It’s the only one.

The Better Together campaign of 2014 was shambolic and might have rendered Scottish Labour irrelevant for a generation.

The Yes campaign were able to depict their opponents as an oppressive coalition of elites who would abandon longestablished principles in defence of an unwanted Union. Many Labour voters deserted the party, possibly never to return.

It’s clear that, as PM, BoJo will be a key weapon in the Yes side’s armoury and Yorkshire- born Leonard could not be expected to go into bat to defend a Johnson premiership. Even the Scottish Tories’ leader Ruth Davidson would not relish such a task.

Whether Leonard likes it or not, though, his party will be aligned with the Tories.

As long as both parties have the same position on the constitution, they will be forced together. That will certainly be the public perception.

So no matter what he does to distance himself, Leonard and his colleagues might find there is no escape.

Hunt appears to be pinning his hopes on a good show in the next TV debate