SCOTLAND loses whoever is elected the next Tory leader, Ian Blackford has told the Commons.
The SNP’s Westminster leader used what is expected to be Boris Johnson’s last PMQs to point out that the people of Scotland don’t just want to get rid of him – they want rid of the “whole rotten Westminster system”.
“The Tory leadership contest is quickly descending into a toxic race to the right,” Blackford warned the interim PM, pointing out those hoping to replace him are promising to govern like Thatcher, threatening 20% cuts to already struggling government departments, and trying to “outdo each other on an extreme Brexit”.
As Tory MPs attempted to shout Blackford down, he referenced Johnson’s refusal to select a candidate to back, and asked: “Is the real reason the Prime Minister won’t endorse any of these awful candidates because whoever becomes the next Tory leader will make Genghis Khan look like a moderate?”
Johnson replied to say he felt a “real twinge” to be taking questions from Blackford for the last time, and joked that it may well be because the SNP chief leaves his role first.
“This is virtually the last time I’ll have the opportunity to answer a question, perhaps because he’s going or I’m going, I don’t know.”
Opposition politicians are continuing to call for the SNP MP’s resignation over his handling of the Patrick Grady sexual harassment scandal.
Johnson’s frontbench laughed along with him.
He went on: “All I would say to him is I think the next leader of my party will want to make sure that we do everything we can to work with the Scottish Government in the way that I’ve been able to do and I’ve been proud to have done over the past few years … to protect and secure our Union … and my strong view … is that we are much, much better together.”
Blackford quickly responded to say he hoped whoever replaces Johnson will be as unpopular as him.
Reading out shocking stats on the cost of living crisis, Blackford told Johnson: “Scotland literally can’t afford the cost of living with Westminster.
“Does he get that people in Scotland don’t just want rid of him - they want rid of the whole rotten Westminster system?”
But the Prime Minister insisted that’s not what’s happening and argued it was “thanks to the Union” that Westminster was able to run the furlough scheme and deliver economic boosts. He called an independence referendum the “last thing” Scotland would need right now.
Also during PMQs, Johnson claimed he will leave with his “head held high” and branded Sir Keir Starmer “Captain Crasheroony Snoozefest”.
Johnson later said: “It is perfectly true that I leave not at a time of my choosing, it is absolutely true, but I am proud of the fantastic teamwork that has been involved in all of those projects both nationally and internationally, and I am also proud of the leadership that I have given.
“I will be leaving with my head held high.”
Starmer opened the session by asking Johnson to scrap “the absurd” non-dom status that allows the “super-rich to dodge tax”.
The session came after Alba MPs Neale Hanvey and Kenny MacAskill were kicked out of the Chamber for staging a pro-independence protest.
After refusing to sit down and be quiet, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle ordered for them to be removed.
