RISHI Sunak has been urged to sack his Scottish Secretary after Boris Johnson nominated him for a peerage.
Alister Jack was one of the few Conservative ministers to remain loyal to Mr Johnson as his government collapsed in July.
He has been rewarded with a place on his resignation honours list, one of four MPs who, if they pass vetting, could be elevated to the House of Lords.
Unusually, all the MPs have agreed to delay taking peerages until the end of this parliament to avoid triggering by-elections, at Mr Johnson’s request.
During Prime Minister’s Questions, the SNP’s Westminster Leader Ian Blackford asked Mr Sunak if thought it “right to keep a man in the cabinet who's clearly far more interested on getting his hands on an ermine robe than playing by the rules of Scottish democracy?”
The Tory leader said he was “obviously not going to comment on speculation around such lists” and insisted “normal procedures and processes” would be followed.
Mr Blackford replied: “I'm afraid that's not speculation and of course, the Prime Minister clearly doesn't get how corrupt this all looks here in Scotland, because not only do we have a UK Government that denies democracy, we now have a Secretary of State that is running scared from it.
“In the middle of a Tory cost of living crisis we now have a Scotland Office which is now to be led by a Baron in waiting, biding his time until he can cash in on the £300 day job for life in the House of Lords.
“He should be sacked from the cabinet, and the people of Dumfries and Galloway should be given the chance to sack the Tories in a by-election. The Prime Minister's judgment is already in tatters. If he has any integrity left. Will he now put a stop to his two predecessors, stuffing the House of Lords up with his cronies?”
Mr Sunak said he and Mr Jack were “jointly focused” on “working constructively with the Scottish Government to deliver for the people of Scotland."
He told MPs that he would be meeting First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Thursday, "because that I think, is what the people of Scotland want to see.”
When details of Mr Johnson's resignation honours were first printed in the Times, a spokesman for Alister Jack said: “We cannot comment on speculation about peerages.
"Alister Jack is absolutely committed to representing his constituents and working with the Prime Minister to continue to deliver for people in Scotland.”
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