SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has told The Sunday National that Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister will boost the case for a second referendum on Scottish independence.
The MP’s comments came as rumours circulated around Westminster that the former Foreign Secretary could even make his move against Theresa May tomorrow.
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson said he had been told that Johnson’s MP backers were “now compiling the requisite 48 names required to send to the backbench 1922 Committee to trigger a no confidence vote in Mrs May.”
Blackford told The Sunday National that the next few weeks were going to crucial for Scotland’s future: “There is a real risk of a no-deal or a bad-deal emerging, and that would seriously endanger the economic interests of the people of Scotland.
“Allied to that, a fallout in the Tory party runs the risks of seeing the election of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister.
“And obviously, from our point of view, that is something that would seriously worry us, and, obviously, in those circumstances we would want to have a conversation with the people of Scotland about how we best protect people.”
Blackford said the Scottish Government still very much had a mandate for a second referendum.
“I think there would be real concerns as to the type of government that Boris Johnson would run,” he warned.
“The First Minister will look at timing once we know the outcome of the Brexit process, but if there is a Brexit process which is going to have serious economic impacts in Scotland, over the coming years, and if you’re allying that with the potential election of Boris Johnson then obviously these are things that we would have to give very considerable consideration to.”
Johnson was booed by cricket fans yesterday as he watched England face India.
The old Etonian, who recently announced he was divorcing his wife of 25 years, appeared to be sitting on his own at the Oval in south London, when he was caught on camera and his face broadcast on the ground’s massive screens. Later he appeared to be sleeping.
Johnson’s marriage reportedly ended because of an affair with a Tory aide.
It’s not the first time Johnson has been unfaithful. He was sacked from the Tory front bench in 2004 for falsely denying an affair with the writer Petronella Wyatt, who had become pregnant and had an abortion. In 2009 he fathered a child with Helen Macintyre, an arts consultant.
Paul Goodman, editor of the website Conservative Home, said that Johnson’s latest infidelity would likely make little impact on his leadership ambitions: “As far as the activists are concerned most of them have already discounted this in his share price.
"The Conservative Party isn’t the model of tongue-clicking finger-wagging say it was at the time of [John] Profumo in [the early Sixties]. It could dent his ratings a bit but I doubt it could break them.”
Johnson is reportedly working with Tory election mastermind Sir Lynton Crosby on his campaign to get into Number 10.
Back in 2014 Johnson delivered an emotional plea to voters to back a no vote in the first independence referendum. Writing in the Telegraph, he said: “There was no British government before the union with Scotland; there was no British electorate; there were no British interests. There was England and Wales, and there was Scotland. Take away Scotland, and we destroy Britain.”
Last week a poll suggested the majority of Scots would support independence if a second referendum was held after Britain leaves the EU.
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