THE father of a five-year-old girl who was killed in the Dunblane massacre has insisted Boris Johnson’s past comments on gun control make him “totally unsuitable” to be Prime Minister.

Dr Mick North spoke out after it emerged Mr Johnson had likened the confiscation of handguns in the wake of the shooting to “nanny confiscating toys” such as model train sets and stamp collections.

In an article published in 1997, Mr Johnson also compared the seizures to “one of those vast Indian programmes of compulsory vasectomy”.

Mr North, who continues to be involved in gun control issues, said he had known about the future Prime Minister’s stance at the time due to other newspaper columns he had written.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson compared gun crackdown after Dunblane to 'nanny confiscating toys'

He said: “Nevertheless I'm still appalled by the attitude reflected by his words, an attitude which to my mind makes him totally unsuitable to be the UK's Prime Minister.”

He added: “None of the views Johnson expressed in the past should be viewed in isolation, excused as one off errors of judgement or just as ‘Boris being Boris’.

“They are part of a pattern which reflects exactly the kind of unsympathetic person he is.”

Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 children and one teacher at Dunblane Primary near Stirling in March 1996 before killing himself in the deadliest mass shooting in British history.

The massacre led to the outlawing of most private handguns.

In an article in September 1997, Mr Johnson wrote about watching gun owners hand in their weapons to a police station in Maidenhead in Berkshire.

He wrote: “The men - and they are virtually all men - come in two at a time. They have aluminium suitcases, safes, plastic bags and set expressions.

“Nanny is confiscating their toys. It is like one of those vast Indian programmes of compulsory vasectomy.

“It is as if the state had decided to round up all the model train sets or the stamp collections, an operation causing immense distress to thousands of innocent enthusiasts, and just about as pointless.

“Thanks to a sweeping ban on handguns introduced here in the wake of the Dunblane, Scotland, massacre of school children last year, law-abiding gun-owners are now handing over their weapons here at a rate of 50 to 60 a day.”

He continued: “An entire pastime will have been exterminated. Britain will be the only country in the world where it is forbidden to practise for an Olympic sport.

“The British taxpayers will have to cough up about one billion pounds in compensation; and still the shooters will receive 25 per cent less than the full value of any improvements to their weapons.”

His article concluded: “It is no use the shooters protesting that this will do nothing about the myriad of illegal weapons, or legal shotguns; or that the existing law should have ensured that guns were taken away from Thomas Hamilton, the loner who killed 16 small children in a moment of madness at Dunblane last March.

“The owners of all the 160,000 handguns are penalized for the dementia of a couple of their number, and because no one, in the current climate, dare speak for them.”

The article was highlighted last week by the pro-Labour Red Roar website.

Mr North, whose daughter Sophie was killed in the Dunblane massacre, said he became aware of Mr Johnson’s other writings on gun control shortly after the shootings.

He said: “Whilst he had a right to have his own opinions about gun legislation the tone of what he said was distasteful and disparaging with no empathy whatsoever with the victims and their families, indeed with the public in general.”

Referring to the September 1997 article, he told The Herald: “It is the shallowness to the writing, and not a care for anyone who was directly involved.”

Mr North said he “came to realise that Johnson's attitude towards those dealing with tragedy was not confined to Dunblane”, and referenced the controversy over an article published in The Spectator in 2004 which referenced Hillsborough.

Mr Johnson apologised after an editorial in the magazine, which he edited at the time, accused Liverpudlians of wallowing in their “victim status” following the murder of Ken Bigley, a British civil engineer who was kidnapped in Iraq and later beheaded. The article also said “drunken fans” were partly to blame for the Hillsborough disaster.

Referring to Mr Johnson’s gun control article, Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw said: "I strongly disagree with these views expressed some 22 years ago.

“The events in Dunblane were beyond all of our nightmares and even now the memory of those weeks is still strong. As a father then of two young sons one of whom started in primary school shortly after those events, I vividly recall the concern of all parents.

“The banning of hand guns gave people the reassurance they needed, I supported it at the time, and it has stood the test of time since."

Last week, the SNP said the gun control comments made it “clearer than ever that Boris Johnson is utterly unfit to lead the country”.

It comes as the UK prepares to go the polls on Thursday, with both Mr Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn expected to make visits to Scotland this week in a last desperate bid to stave off a Nationalist landslide.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister was accused of lying to the public over his promises to reduce immigration.

The Conservative Party has set out its plans for an Australian-style points-based immigration system, which would put no limits on highly educated and award-winning workers, investors or entrepreneurs coming to Britain after Brexit.

It would also fast-track and offer reduced fees to doctors, nurses or social care workers who want to come to work in the NHS.

Mr Johnson, in an interview with Sky News's Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, said he could guarantee "numbers will come down" as part of the "controlled" measures.

But Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said Mr Johnson was "misleading" voters about the effectiveness of the proposed new system.

He also argued the Tories would have "no democratic control" over the immigration numbers due to plans to set-up an independent committee to oversee the points-system implementation.

Mr Ashworth told Sky News: "He said the committee will be independent in the same way as the Bank of England is independent so he is misleading people when he says he is bringing immigration down because there will be no democratic control.

"There will be no accountability over any decision that any immigration minister makes because it will be handed over to a statutory independent committee - so again Boris Johnson is lying to the British people."

Mr Ashworth said the UK "should absolutely maintain free movement for the NHS and the social care sector".

During his appearance on Sky News, Mr Johnson declined to answer three times when asked whether he would resign if he loses the election.

Meanwhile, Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell admitted he worries that the anti-Semitism allegations which have dogged his party may effect this week's general election result.

The UK Conservative Party did not respond to a request for comment about Mr Johnson's gun control article.