IT didn’t take long for high profile Conservative MP’s to show their true colours after Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross called for Boris Johnson to resign. The Tory party have truly shown a last straw disregard for Scotland, going as far as to alienate their own party north of the Border.
It has been merely days since Douglas Ross restated his position that the Prime Minister should resign if he is found to have lied about attending a gathering during the lockdown. It was not difficult to predict, as he made that statement, that he would be rightfully condemning Boris Johnson and calling for his outright resignation in the near future.
What would have been difficult to predict however is the treatment he has received from his own party members south of the Border.
READ MORE: Jacob Rees-Mogg doubles down on attack on ‘lightweight’ Douglas Ross
It is hardly surprising that the first Cabinet response condemning Douglas Ross came from Michael Gove, who was once close friends with Johnson. Gove claimed in a statement that “my instant response is he’s in Elgin and the national Tory leader is in London”.
I wonder how Ross’ constituents would react to Gove’s comment. Many would read the statement as conveying the deep sense of elitism within the Tory party that disregards Scotland as unimportant.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, above, called Douglas Ross a 'light-weight' figure
In an interview with LBC on January 12, Jacob Rees-Mogg also stated his belief that Ross was “not a big figure”. Instead, Rees-Mogg referred to the secretary of state for Scotland, Alister Jack, as a “really serious figure”. It begs the question, how does Alister Jack feel about his colleague's comments towards the Scottish division of the party?
I can not imagine Alister Jack truly feels supportive of Boris Johnson or Rees-Mogg at the moment, particularly when they are using him as a scapegoat to besmirch the party’s own leader in Scotland.
READ MORE: Tory support in Scotland at 'lowest for seven or eight years', John Curtice says
I’d imagine this would be much alike his fellow colleague from the neighbouring constituency, David Mundell. Mundell was secretary of state for Scotland between 2015-2019, yet perhaps due to his opposition to Brexit, was sent to the backbenches for the first time by Boris Johnson when he was elected as PM. Could he truly be supportive of the PM at this moment? And for how much longer?
Hopefully, this series of events will act as an eye-opener to those on the right in Scotland that independence is far bigger than a single party issue.
However, for many, they are yet another symptom of the Tory party's disdain towards the Scottish people.
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