A TORY minister has rubbished as “nonsense” suggestions that Boris Johnson and Douglas Ross are at loggerheads – despite the pair avoiding each other during the Prime Minister’s visit to Scotland.
Ross called on his Westminster boss to resign over the partygate scandal last month. Johnson, who is travelling north on Monday, will not meet the Scottish Tory leader during his trip.
But Scotland Office minister Iain Stewart denied suggestions that the two are irrevocably opposed.
He denied the Prime Minister is “persona non grata” among Scottish Tories despite Monday’s snub.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson visits Scotland today – here's what we know so far
He told BBC Good Morning Scotland: “Not at all. He’s in regular contact with them. I don’t know whether diaries didn’t align up today or not.”
Addressing the rift between the Scottish and Westminster cohorts, he added: “This is just nonsense from the opponents that they’re trying to make more political drama when none exists.”
Pressed on why no meeting has been scheduled with Ross, Stewart defended the Prime Minister, saying the two leaders are regularly in contact”.
The minister added: “When I go up and visit around Scotland, sometimes I meet with my MSP colleagues, sometimes I don’t.”
Johnson is in Scotland to announce an agreement with the Scottish Government on the plan to create new green freeports.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said the visit north should be Johnson’s “farewell tour”.
But Stewart, the MP for Milton Keyes South, argued his boss was “getting on with the job”.
“I think what the Prime Minister is doing is showing we are getting on with the job, we are setting out a comprehensive and bold vision of what we want the UK and Scottish economy to be,” he told the BBC.
“We’re investing massively, whether it’s in freeports, whether it’s in the levelling up agenda.”
READ MORE: Boris Johnson's visit to Scotland branded his 'farewell tour'
Blackford, meanwhile, was less generous in his assessment. He cited a new poll from Panelbase which found three-quarters of Scots believe Johnson should resign.
He told Sky News: “This is Prime Minister who is not going to meet his own Scottish Conservative leader, even the Scottish Conservatives want Boris Johnson to go.
“I hope this is his farewell tour, he is a man who is deeply unpopular up here.
“More than 75% of Scots think he should resign and I think people right up and down these islands recognise that this is a Prime Minister who no longer has moral authority.”
While there is speculation that Chancellor Rishi Sunak could be a potential successor to the Prime Minister, Blackford argued it was more important for Scots to be given a choice on independence.
He insisted: “It’s not a choice about Boris Johnson or Rishi Sunak or anybody else, it’s about the choice of the people of Scotland to choose their own future.”
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