FORMER Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has said the Prime Minister should resign – right after her successor defended Boris Johnson’s position.
The Met said on Tuesday that at least 30 more fines were being issued over the partygate saga, with a spokesman for Number 10 confirming both Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak will be among the recipients.
Calls for their resignations swelled in the hours after the announcement, with Nicola Sturgeon among those calling for them to step down.
But Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross – previously one of the leading voices in calling for the Prime Minister to resign over partygate before withdrawing that call in March – said his removal would “destabilise” the country as it tries to deal with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Around an hour later, his predecessor Baroness Davidson took to Twitter to break party ranks.
“Met confirms what we already knew,” she said. “The PM introduced liberty-curtailing rules for public health reasons. This caused huge hardship for those separated from ill or dying loved ones. He then broke the rules he imposed on the country & lost the moral authority to lead. He should go.”
With the local elections coming up in a matter of weeks, the Scottish Tories are likely to face many questions over how they can continue to support a law-breaking Prime Minister – and Davidson’s intervention is likely to make things harder for Ross and his colleagues.
Meanwhile, Cabinet members have stayed quiet in the wake of the news – but Johnson has won support from a previously vocal critic, backbencher Roger Gale.
Johnson loyalist Nadine Dorries was one of the first senior Government figures to publicly back the Prime Minister, tweeting on Tuesday evening: "PM has been clear about what happened on 19th June 2020 & offered a full apology.
"It was a brief gathering in the Cabinet Room, less than 10 minutes during a busy working day. PM is at his best when delivering on the priorities of the British people which he will continue to do."
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