DOUGLAS Ross has insisted he and not Boris Johnson is leading the Conservative campaign for the May Holyrood elections but refused to say if the Prime Minister will be a help or a hindrance to it.
In an exclusive interview with The Herald, the 38-year-old Scottish Tory leader described his relationship with Mr Johnson as one of “mutual respect,” but the Moray MP has clashed with the PM and No 10 on several occasions, most notably last year when he resigned as a Scotland Office Minister in protest at Dominic Cummings’s controversial trip to County Durham during the first lockdown.
One recent flashpoint came when Mr Johnson contentiously declared how “devolution has been a disaster” for Scotland, later clarifying the remark to insist it was the SNP Government’s handling of devolution, which had been disastrous.
READ MORE: Douglas Ross: SNP Holyrood majority in May 'not inevitable'
Last week, the PM while on a visit to Scotland insisted he would be coming north of the border regularly in the run-up to the Holyrood poll and that “no one was going to stop me”.
Asked if the prospect of a prime ministerial visit in the middle of the campaign filled him with delight or horror, Mr Ross said: “I spoke to the PM when he was up in Scotland last week; he’ll be back in Scotland before the election as Prime Minister of the whole of the UK.
“He has a very positive message to sell in terms of the vaccine rollout and the availability of vaccines in this country because of the UK Government and the efforts they have put in. The hundreds of thousands of jobs in Scotland that have been protected by Rishi Sunak’s furlough are a result of the UK Government support here in Scotland and there is more money coming directly from the UK Government in the months and years ahead, which annoys the SNP because it bypasses them but it actually shows his levelling-up agenda invests in every part of the country.”
Pressed on what he would say to Tory colleagues who regarded Mr Johnson as an electoral liability to the party’s cause in the Holyrood campaign, the Conservative leader said: “The PM is the Prime Minister of the whole United Kingdom but I am the leader here in Scotland, so I will welcome the PM when he comes up.
“He fully understands we are a separate party here in Scotland. I am the leader of the party taking the fight to the SNP in the run-up to May. It’s our party here in Scotland. It’s our policies. He will support our efforts. But the campaign, the drive, the vision, the determination comes from the Scottish party led by me.”
READ MORE: Ross airs concerns over BBC lack of impartiality and 'trotting out' SNP lines
Asked if he thought Mr Johnson would be a help not a hindrance to the Scottish party’s campaign, Mr Ross replied: “Well, the PM said he is going to be up here, he is going to be supporting our efforts but he understands the campaign is being fully led by me as leader of the Scottish party and I’m determined to get our positive message, about the future of the UK and Scotland’s place within it and the alternative to this tired and failing SNP Govt, across at every opportunity in the run-up to that election.”
Quizzed about how one former minister described Mr Johnson as a “monkey on Douglas Ross’s back,” the party leader laughed and said: “I can’t even relate to that because I have never had a monkey on my back.
“The relationship I have with the PM is one of mutual respect. I agree with him when I think it’s in the best interests of Scotland, I disagree with him when I think we need to do more and that’s a similar approach he took with David Cameron when he was Mayor of London and Mr Cameron was Prime Minister,” he added.
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