BORIS Johnson has praised Douglas Ross's "excellent leadership" just hours after it emerged the Scottish Tory leader withdrew his call for the PM to quit.
It was revealed on Thursday that Ross had withdrawn his letter to the 1922 committee calling for Johnson's resignation in the wake of the partygate revelations.
The U-turn was widely ridiculed by opposition politicians and Ross was dubbed "spineless" and having "the backbone of a jellyfish" for the climbdown.
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Ross later defended his decision by arguing that the focus should be on war in Ukraine.
The PM is expected to attend the Scottish Tory conference in person in Aberdeen next week.
And now, the Daily Record reports that the PM has penned a special message in the party's conference booklet.
The visit is being seen as a way to smooth over relations with Scottish Tories after the majority of the party's MSPs backed Ross's call for Johnson to stand down.
Johnson wrote: “This will be the party conference held since the Scottish elections last May at which, under Douglas Ross’ excellent leadership, you defied the critics by retaining 31 seats in the Scottish Parliament and cemented your position as Scotland’s second biggest party.
“In doing so, you added 100,000 extra votes for the Scottish Conservatives, delivering our highest every vote share, and stopped an SNP majority - just like you promised you would.”
Reportedly Ross's own message in the booklet made no reference to Johnson.
On January 12, Ross called for Johnson to step down after the PM admitted he attended the now infamous "bring your own booze" event in the Number 10 garden.
The PM admitted during PMQs that he had spent 25 minutes at the staff gathering when lockdown rules prevented gatherings from taking place.
Johnson claimed he "believed implicitly" it was a work event.
After the revelations, Ross was interviewed by STV on what the PM should do next.
Ross said: "I said yesterday that if the Prime Minister attended this gathering or party or event at Downing Street on the 20th of May, then he could not continue as prime minister.
"So, regretfully, I have to say that his position is no longer tenable."
He added: "Therefore, and I don’t want to be in this position but I am in this position now where I don’t think he can continue as leader of the Conservatives."
Just a few months later, in a BBC interview on Friday, Ross said that Ukraine and the threat from Vladimir Putin was more important than the partygate row.
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He said: “I’ve had to take a decision looking at what’s happening on the world scene at the moment.
“Looking at the issues that people are contacting me about or speaking about, it dominates our conversations wherever you go at the moment.
“And anything else just seems trivial, it really does seem so small in comparison to a country defending itself against atrocious actions from the Russians and Vladimir Putin.
“And that’s why I think our focus should be on supporting and helping the people in Ukraine, not on personal differences we may have with each other in the UK.”
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