A SCOTTISH Tory MP has been forced to deny claims he is backing Boris Johnson to replace Theresa May as Prime Minister.
John Lamont, MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, was named as a Johnson supporter in a Sunday Telegraph article analysing the runners and riders in the race to become the next Tory leader.
The article, written by former Tory advisor Iain Dale, said Johnson was “depressed by how few MPs are willing to publicly back him”.
It then listed Lamont alongside arch Brexiteers Jacob Rees-Mogg and Andrew Bridgen among a handful of others.
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Taking to Twitter, Lamont tweeted: “Returned from my run to discover my phone filling up with messages about this newspaper article.
“Perhaps if the newspaper had checked with me first I could have confirmed that when there’s a leadership contest I won’t be backing Mr Johnson.”
Returned from my run to discover my phone filling up with messages about this newspaper article... 👇
— John Lamont MP 🏴🇬🇧 (@John2Win) March 31, 2019
Perhaps if the newspaper had checked with me first I could have confirmed that when there’s a leadership contest I won’t be backing Mr Johnson.
Sorry @BorisJohnson pic.twitter.com/lu2Y0SoJkn
“Sorry @BorisJohnson” he added.
Dale apologised “for any embarrassment caused” but insisted claims of Lamont’s support “came from one of Boris’s chief cheerleaders.”
However, there was no mention of Aberdeen South MP Ross Thomson in the paper's list of Johnson supporters.
Last October he got into a fight with some of Scottish Tory colleagues over Johnson, publicly describing them as “arseholes”.
His attack came it was revealed Scottish Tory bosses had launched a secret campaign code-named "Operation Arse" to stop the former foreign secretary replacing May.
Reportedly, internal Tory polling shows that Johnson as Prime Minister would reverse the party's gains made at the last General Election, when they won 12 Westminster seats.
A senior party source told the Daily Record: "We called it that so we'd all be clear who we were talking about."
The story appeared during the Tory party conference, when Johnson made a speech in front of 1500 activists.
Thomson tweeted at the time: “Regardless of your view of @BorisJohnson, today in his characteristic style he injected some much needed energy, optimism, passion and enthusiasm to a flat conference.
Regardless of your view of @BorisJohnson, today in his characteristic style he injected some much needed energy, optimism, passion and enthusiasm to a flat conference. The reaction in the hall was electric which even those ”Operation Arsehole’s” can’t deny. #ChuckChequers #CPC18 pic.twitter.com/2bFPUmIJTY
— 𝗥𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝗺𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗣 (@RossThomson_MP) October 2, 2018
“The reaction in the hall was electric which even those ‘Operation Arsehole’s [sic]’ can’t deny. #ChuckChequers #CPC18 David Mundell, has previously spoken out publicly against Johnson, warning that his former cabinet-colleague was “not an asset” to the party in Scotland.
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The Scottish secretary said people were “concerned about Mr Johnson’s behaviour” and accused him of trying to create the “maximum amount of distraction and headlines for himself”.
“I think what is a fact is that Mr Johnson is not an asset for the Scottish Conservative Party. I don’t think people find that his behaviour is one that would endear him to voters.
“We have a very, very strong leader in Scotland in Ruth Davidson who had a very significant contribution to make to this conference. Her message was to rally round the prime minister as we move forward with Brexit.”
Mundell added: “I don’t think this is a time to be talking about leadership challenges, it is a time to be supporting our prime minister as she takes forward this incredibly difficult task of getting a deal with the EU.”
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