THE SNP have said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is “running scared” from the people of Scotland after it emerged he may not campaign for the Tories in the Holyrood election.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross admitted he was “not sure” if Johnson would travel north of the Border ahead of the May 6 poll.

He said he had “previously expected” the UK party leader to come to Scotland, but said the coronavirus pandemic, and restrictions imposed as a result, made it a “very different” type of campaign.

However, Johnson visited Scotland at the end of January when coronavirus levels were much higher and a “stay at home” order was in place, with people told only to make necessary trips. The mid-lockdown trip prompted fury among opposition parties.

Keith Brown, the SNP’s depute leader, said Johnson is “being kept away from Scotland”, demonstrating how unpopular the Tory leader is.

“We were told just last week by Ruth Davidson that she was ‘ringing the alarm bell’ for the Union, but Boris Johnson must not be hearing it as he cannot even bring himself to come to Scotland to make the case,” he said.

“Running scared of the people of Scotland is becoming a theme within the Tories, with Baroness Davidson herself running away from accountability and scrutiny as she heads off to take up her £300-a-day job in the unelected House of Lords.

“As for Douglas Ross, this campaign goes from bad to worse. First, he got punted to the sidelines on their leaflets and now Boris Johnson can’t even bring himself to support the campaign.

“All while the Tories continue to tank in the polls.”

Asked yesterday if the Tory leader would be campaigning in Scotland ahead of the election, Ross said: “I am not sure he is going to come up.”

READ MORE: Douglas Ross was at a loss during car-crash Good Morning Scotland interview

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, he said: “I had previously expected him to come up. Clearly as we continue to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic this whole election is very different.”

He added: “Clearly it is a different election than any of us have experienced before.”

With four weeks to go until polling day, he said “we will have to see what happens”.

Ross added: “Last time he was up here he was supporting our vaccinators, he was looking at how we are getting the vaccine rolled out across Scotland, the successful scheme across all of the United Kingdom.

“Now we are in an election campaign it is very different. He wouldn’t be coming up to speak to a big meeting or doing a massive visit as previous leaders have done.

“It is very different. We have seen all the party leaders in Scotland having to tackle this election in a very different way because we are still living under significant restrictions.”

He said: “The Prime Minister is fully in touch with what we are doing here. But he understands it’s my campaign as leader of the Scottish Conservatives, it is our manifesto. He is absolutely behind what we are doing here in Scotland, but he knows our fight is as Scottish Conservatives and he is backing that as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.”

Johnson is extremely unpopular in Scotland, with an approval rating of minus 42 as of January. He is consistently cited by pollsters as a driving force in increasing support for Scottish independence. 

Ross fares slightly better, but his latest net favourability rating from Scottish voters had him at minus 23.

It comes as recent polls have predicted Holyrood will have a pro-independence majority in May, with the SNP and Greens expected to make gains.

The most recent poll by Opinium found the SNP would win 53% of the constituency vote and 44% on the regional list, giving the party a total of 71 MSPs of the 129 total seats available in Holyrood. The same poll predicted 6 seats for the Greens, but others have had them as high as 11.