Johnson to be told to ‘stay away from Scotland’ in run-up to 2021

BORIS Johnson will be told by Scottish Conservative candidates to stay away from Scotland in the run-up to next year’s Holyrood election, it has been suggested, as senior Tories claim he has been “found out” by the Covid crisis.

The Prime Minister now runs the risk of being ditched by his party next year after the Brexit transition period ends.

One former minister told The Herald that Mr Johnson was a “monkey on Douglas Ross’s back” and would be told to stay away from Scotland in the run-up to May’s Holyrood election in order not to harm the party’s chances in the face of an expected SNP surge and a Labour collapse.

He said: “How many Tory candidates for the Holyrood election will put Boris in their leaflets? None. Anyone in the Conservative Party doesn’t want him anywhere near that election.

“They won’t want him to come up, they won’t want any photos. Ruth will be the leader with

Douglas as her liegeman. There will be no sign of Boris.”

Last month, analysis suggested Scottish voters’ “loathing” of Mr Johnson was the biggest factor driving them to back independence; 12 consecutive snapshots have shown a lead for Scotland leaving the UK. The analysis suggested some 79 per cent of swing voters agreed with the view that the PM was “not the leader I want for my country”.

While it is accepted across Westminster that the pandemic would have posed a serious challenge to any prime minister and their government, several senior Tory figures have been aghast at the constant flow of U-turns in recent months, which they believe has shown the UK Government to be badly adrift.

Some backbenchers have branded last week’s leak about the lockdown U-turn in England as “farcical”. One peer noted: “Boris is in a bad place. He has a B-team in Cabinet, having given jobs to people who were supportive in the Brexit debate and a woeful communications team. It’s a perfect storm.”

The senior Conservative explained how Mr Johnson, pictured right, was normally a great communicator, who could raise people’s spirits by his bonhomie.

“But this does not work with Covid; no-one wants to chuckle in a lockdown.”

He went on: “Can Boris get off his knees? At the moment, he is crawling around looking for solutions. The staff at No 10 are woefully inadequate. Dominic Cummings (the PM’S chief aide) believes communications is irrelevant, but Tony Blair knew it makes all the difference.”

As England went into lockdown, a move the Tory leader recently denounced as the “height of absurdity”, another former minister claimed Mr Johnson’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis showed he was not up to the job.

“It’s a very difficult situation but he has been found out. At the end of the day Churchill was a person of substance and of great experience. He is not Churchill. Lots of people grow into office. Theresa May, despite her problems, looked like a Prime Minister; he does not.”

The senior Tory said he had expected Mr Johnson would have been better at bringing people together yet had “failed to unite the nation”.

Asked if Mr Johnson could survive 2021 as Tory leader and Prime Minister, the former minister replied: “He will see out Brexit but once that is out of the way, there will be more questions. The next difficult moment will come on December 2. It was a pretty rash thing to do to say the lockdown will be lifted then; what happens if the numbers are worse?”

A colleague noted: “Boris can soldier on. But there will be a point towards the end of next year when there might be a wind of change. The party might have to figure out how to move forward and allow him to depart gracefully.”

One Tory MP described Mr Johnson as a “good time prime minister”, who was struggling to manage the pandemic effectively.

“We have got to get a grip of this drift. We have to make it look as though we are in control,” he declared.

Referring to the 2021 Holyrood election, he said: “The worst thing we can do is present ourselves as a divided party. We need to sell the benefits of the UK and not continually bash the UK Government. We need to get behind the PM but also stand up for Scotland’s interests when we don’t think they are being best served. We are one party fighting for the UK.”

The backbencher added: “All of us, especially the new intake, hold their jobs and positions because of Boris Johnson; particularly the MPS in the north of England.

“It’s up to us to rally round; we can regain the initiative.”