DOUGLAS Ross has formally called for the Prime Minister to resign after he admitted he went to a garden party during lockdown.
Mr Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said yesterday that Boris Johnson should quit if he attended the event in the Downing Street garden on May 20, 2020.
During Prime Minister's Questions this afternoon, Mr Johnson admitted he had been at the party for 25 minutes, but caveated it by saying he believed it was a work event.
This afternoon Mr Ross, MP for Moray and repeated critic of Mr Johnson, said it was now time for him to step down.
He said: "I don't want to be in this position. I am in the position now where I don't think he can continue as leader of the Conservatives.
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"I spoke to the Prime Minister this afternoon, I set out my reasons and I explained to him my position."
Mr Ross said that while he would not go into the details of a privatye discussion between himself and Mr Johnson, the Prime Minister "believes that he didn't do anything wrong."
He continued: " And he has put up a defence for his position.
"But I also have to look at the information I have in front to me, and to stick with the position that I made quite clear yesterday that if he did attend that party, he couldn't continue as Prime Minister."
Speaking to STV News, he said: “I said, yesterday, if the Prime Minister attended this gathering, event in Downing Street on May 20 2020, he could not continue as Prime Minister so, regretfully, I have to say his position is no longer tenable.”
He added: “There was one simple question to answer yesterday, indeed, from Monday night when we saw this invitation which was to more than 100 people asking them to join others in the Downing Street garden and bring their own booze.
“If the Prime Minister was there, and he accepted today that he was, then I felt he could not continue.
“What we also heard from the Prime Minister today was an apology and he said with hindsight he would have done things differently, which for me is an acceptance from the Prime Minister that it was wrong and therefore, I don’t want to be in this position, but I am in this position now, where I don’t think he can continue as leader of the Conservatives.”
The Moray MP said he spoke to the Prime Minister on Wednesday afternoon “and I set down my reasons and I explained to him my position”.
Mr Ross was immediately supported by Scottish Tory colleagues, including former leader Jackson Carlaw and MSPs Murdo Fraser, Liz Smith and Douglas Lumsden, who took to Twitter to back their leader.
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