Boris Johnson’s dwindling brigade of supporters point to the Conservatives’ landslide election win of 2019 as evidence he’s too gifted a politician for his party to lose. But they conveniently ignore the fact his charm stopped working at the border with Scotland.
Voters across much of England may have flocked to Johnson but he repelled many Scots. In 2019, the SNP won back 13 of the 21 seats it had lost two years previously, when Theresa May was prime minister. The Tories lost seven Scottish seats.
There is a particular caricature of the distant, uncaring Conservative that repels Scottish voters. And that caricature is Boris Johnson-shaped.
So, over recent years, it has made very good political sense for the Scottish Tories to make it clear they share the public’s doubts about Johnson.
This was something former leader Ruth Davidson understood very well. Her absolutely heartfelt contempt for Johnson has never been in doubt. Not only did she thoroughly dislike the idea of a Johnson premiership, she saw good political reasons – after helping revive her party’s fortunes in Scotland – for making sure everyone knew it.
Current Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross should have taken his lead from Davidson. Instead, he has been weak when it comes to the disgraced former Prime Minister.
Ross – an MSP and an MP – will have his say when the Commons votes on the Privileges Committee’s report into partygate on Monday. He has said he will back its findings.
But there will be no whipping of Scottish Tory MPs on the issue, no matter the damage support for Johnson would cause to the party in Scotland. Some Scottish Tories are bracing themselves against the possibility that Scottish Secretary Alister Jack – a longtime Johnson supporter – will continue to back the disgraced former prime minister.
He has been weak when it comes to the disgraced former Prime Minister
The fact is that Ross has handled the Johnson issue badly for some time, flip-flopping on whether the former PM was fit for office.
In January, last year, Ross hinted he might just understand the feelings of the majority of Scottish voters when he joined those Tories calling for Johnson to quit over lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street. His position was clear and necessary. An attack that followed from Jacob Rees-Mogg, who declared Ross a ‘lightweight figure’, did the Scottish Tory leader no damage.
Two months later, Ross had changed his mind, joining in with the patent nonsense that the Russian invasion of Ukraine meant it simply wasn’t the right time for a change of leadership in the UK.
It turned out Ross did not hold that conviction especially strongly. Last July, as members of the then-Prime Minister’s team began resigning in their droves, the Scottish Tory leader decided that Johnson should go, after all. There wasn’t a peep out of him on the impact this might have on Ukraine.
In the aftermath of publication of the Privileges Committee report, Ross was doorstepped by a journalist at Holyrood. Did he regret past comments, she asked, in which he described Johnson as an honest man?
In reply came waffle and evasion. Perhaps you remember the unseen teacher in the old Charlie Brown cartoons who only ever spoke in a wordless stream of wah wah wahs. It was kind of like that.
When he became Scottish Conservative leader in August 2020, top of Douglas Ross’s to-do list was the maintenance of clear distance between himself and Boris Johnson. He failed in that simple task.
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