Ross points finger of blame at Johnson for poor results

DOUGLAS Ross has not ruled out resubmitting his letter of no confidence in Boris Johnson after a brutal result in the local elections.

The Scottish Tory leader said voters had been clear about their concerns with the Prime Minister over partygate prior to Thursday’s poll, which resulted in his party losing dozens of councillors in Scotland and more than 300 in England.

He had previously been the first MP to call for Mr Johnson to quit when details of the parties and gatherings across Whitehall emerged, and submitted a letter to the powerful 1922 backbench committee of Tory MPs.

However, when the war in Ukraine broke out, he rescinded his vote of no confidence and said he did not believe it was the right time for a leadership challenge.

Mr Ross said that while he took responsibility for his part in the poor results, the issue of rule-breaking parties in Downing Street had played a role in the defeat.

Speaking yesterday morning, he said: “Clearly it wasn’t a good night and I’m disappointed. I want to say directly to all the voters who chose to stay at home that we understand why they did it.

“They are rightly angry, and the challenge for me in the party is to win back their trust and their support and convince them that we deserve their vote next time. It’s a situation that I take with the utmost seriousness, that people chose to protest in this way and stay at home in many cases in this election.”

One senior UK Conservative politician told The Herald that Mr Ross had been “idiotic” in his handling of the partygate saga, by calling for Mr Johnson to quit then reneging on the demands when the conflict in

Ukraine began. They said: “Douglas has handled the partygate affair in an idiotic manner. He was advised prior to calling for Boris Johnson’s resignation not to go down that route, but he did anyway and now it has come back to bite him.

“Yes, we are in a mess with the Prime Minister over the parties, and he has to take responsibility for that, but Douglas Ross essentially U-turning on his criticism made it even worse in

Scotland. He also has to take some of the blame.”

Asked about these remarks, the Scottish Tory leader said: “I absolutely take responsibility for the result that Scottish Conservatives had here in Scotland. I’m the leader of the party here, and I take responsibility.

“I’m not avoiding scrutiny on my own record on this, but I think people can also see what’s happened across the whole of the United Kingdom.”