DOWNING Street has been branded “beneath contempt” after they tried to blame the SNP for Boris Johnson having to cut his holiday short.

The Prime Minister, his fiancee Carrie Symonds, and their baby son Wilfred had spent most last week holidaying in a luxury cottage in Applecross in the Highlands.

However, on Thursday, a picture of the Tory leader and a tent appeared on the front page of the Daily Mail.

According to a report in The Sun, the Prime Minister’s bodyguards said it wasn’t safe for the family to stay on and it is understood they flew home on Thursday after just three days.

A senior Tory told the paper: “The finger of blame for this all getting out is being pointed at the SNP, particularly Ian Blackford who is local.”

The Ross, Skye, Lochaber MP told The National he knew Johnson was in the constituency but only realised he was in Applecross when pictures appeared in the press.

He said the attempt to “smear” him was a ploy by Downing Street to attack the SNP.

Blackford said: “I think it’s just classic deflection. And it’s really beneath contempt that a government would behave in this way. The simple fact of the matter, as anybody that knows the Highlands knows, this is not an area you can come and hide.

“People tend to know who their neighbours are, and who’s round about that and all that and I can tell you that there were many people commenting on the presence of the Prime Minister last week.

“It wasn’t me that led to the story being published. Absolutely nothing to do with me.”

The claim that Blackford and the SNP was responsible was repeated by a number of prominent Unionist accounts on social media.

The TV presenter and right-wing columnist Neil Oliver tweeted: “Scotland was the most welcoming country in the world. That a British PM – or indeed anyone at all – might feel unsafe here is more mortifying and heartbreaking than I can say.”

Writing for The National Extra, the SNP activist Toni Giugliano said the story “of a PM ‘chased’ out of Scotland by a ‘mob of Scottish nationalists’” didn’t stack up.

He said: “The only known culprit is the Daily Mail, which chose to publish his location, a move hailed by Piers Morgan as a “brilliant scoop”.

“It’s completely reasonable for any Prime Minister or First Minister and their family to want to feel safe and protected – particularly away from home. Our police are among the best in the world at protecting people in the public eye.

“The sad truth is that it’s hard to believe a single word crafted by Dominic Cummings et al, who were quick to accuse Ian Blackford of revealing the Prime Minister’s whereabouts – despite the fact that the Skye based MP lives about 100 miles away from the PM’s swanky yurt.”

He added: “If a Prime Minister’s holiday plans are revealed, whether it’s Applecross or Aldridge, it tells you absolutely nothing about those places or their people.

“The most it reveals is Number 10’s inability to plan a holiday.”

Yesterday, Symonds released photographs of their trip.

They showed Johnson carrying his young son in a sling.

Johnson was criticised by a local farmer who claimed the Prime Minister pitched a tent in his field without permission.

Farmer Kenny Cameron said: “Mr Johnson is meant to be leading the country and yet he is not setting a great example.

“Usually if people want to go inside a fenced area they ask for permission first, but I was not asked at all.

“He could have put up his tent in the garden of the cottage and there would have been no problem – but didn’t do that.

“He could easily have damaged the fence by climbing over it as a short-cut.

“There is a gate a little way up and they could have just used that.”

It was also reported that the remains of a small campfire were left by the tent, and this had to be cleared up after Johnson returned to England.

Johnson’s staff reportedly apologised to Cameron, saying they believed the field was part of the luxury Old School House cottage rented by the Prime Minister and his family.