A SNAP General Election would not be in the national interest, a Scottish Tory MP has said.
Andrew Bowie is backing Rishi Sunak to become the next prime minister – as he did during the summer leadership race – citing a “proven” track record of acting in a crisis.
Sunak has already surpassed the 100 MPs needed to stand in the contest and could face Penny Mordaunt for the bid to replace Liz Truss if she can also meet the threshold.
However, opposition parties and some Tory MPs have said it would be undemocratic to appoint another leader without going to the public.
But Bowie, the West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine MP, said the UK needed “stability”.
Speaking on BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland, Bowie said: “A General Election, even for a snap General Election, by law necessitates six weeks of campaigning. That is six weeks when parliament isn’t sitting and six weeks where government isn’t getting down to business.”
He added: “We need a period of stability and certainty. And that means getting back down to sober, serious government in the national interest, and that would be the least well-served by going to the country right now in a snap General Election.”
“A General Election will take place one day within the next few years and the British people will get their say on whether or not we have delivered on our manifesto commitment and have a plan for this country,” he said.
“And we will live or die by the verdict of the British people when that time comes.”
Ian Blackford (above), the SNP’s Westminster leader, said: “The last thing the country needs is another unelected Tory in Downing Street”.
He said: “If Tory MPs have any respect for democracy, they’ll put pressure on the new prime minister to immediately call a general election.”
Blackford has also written to Labour leader Keir Starmer, urging him to push for a vote of no confidence in the Tories, which could lead to a General Election.
As the leader of the opposition in the House of Commons, Starmer is the only MP who can submit the formal vote of no confidence motion.
There has been speculation about whether the Tory MPs who backed Boris Johnson's return to office, such as Nadine Dorries, would support such a motion but that is very unlikely.
Dorries has called for a General Election, claiming "all hell will break loose" if a new leader is crowned without a mandate.
Bowie said he believed Johnson had done “the right thing" by dropping out of the leadership race, despite never having formally entered it.
The disgraced former prime minister said that seeking to return would “simply not be the right thing to do” as he insisted “you can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in Parliament”.
Johnson claimed to have 102 MPs backing him, though only around half had done so publicly.
