Johnson crisis reveals divisions between Scottish and English Tories

(CN) — Stark divisions have opened up between Scottish and English Conservatives as the ongoing fallout from Boris Johnson’s collapse in authority sends political shockwaves around the United Kingdom.

The leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Douglas Ross, has called for Prime Minister Johnson to resign, following further revelations of parties in Downing Street which appear to have defied coronavirus lockdown restrictions. The call makes him the first senior member of the governing Conservative Party to publicly demand Johnson's resignation.

Following Johnson admitting and apologizing for having attended the apparently rule-breaking party during a rowdy House of Commons session on Wednesday, Ross was clear in his demand. Speaking to Scottish broadcaster STV, he explained: “I said yesterday if the Prime Minister attended this gathering, party, event, in Downing Street on the 20th May then he could not continue as prime minister. So regretfully I have to say his position is no longer tenable."

“I don't want to be in this position, but I am in the position now where I don't think he can continue as leader of the Conservatives," Ross said. "I know from speaking to colleagues in the Scottish Parliament and the U.K. Parliament that there is significant unrest and concern about the actions that took place in Downing Street."

Some members of the U.K. Cabinet have publicly backed the PM, whilst others have largely remained silent about their leader’s future. Key leadership rival, Chancellor Rishi Sunak, has been notably inconspicuous in recent days.

Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Johnson ally, ignited tensions with the Scottish Conservatives on Wednesday evening. When asked on the BBC’s "Newsnight" about the significance of Ross’s statement, he dismissed the Scottish leader as “a lightweight figure,” instead expressing a preference for the opinion of the Westminster-based Secretary of State for Scotland Alister Jack, who has publicly backed the prime minister. His comments were echoed by Housing Secretary Michael Gove, another key player in the leadership drama.

Jack did not welcome the comments. He subsequently expressed his view that “Douglas Ross is not a lightweight. He’s a very serious politician.” Nor were the comments appreciated in Edinburgh, where it was reported that Johnson had been uninvited from the Scottish Conservative conference in March – an unprecedented exclusion for a party leader, let alone incumbent prime minister.

It has been reported that all 31 Conservative Members of the Scottish Parliament support Ross’s resignation call, and the tension has reignited talk of a split from the national party.

Opposing the prime minister is a move likely to go down well among the Scottish electorate. Johnson has always been profoundly unpopular among Scots, widely regarded to personify a privileged English pomposity that is anathema to Scottish sensibilities.

In his previous career as a journalist, Johnson has a long record of being associated with offensive comments about Scottish people. In 2005 he wrote that former Prime Minister Gordon Brown was not fit for the office on the grounds that he was Scottish. The previous year, as editor of the right-wing magazine The Spectator, Johnson oversaw the publication of an obscene poem which described Scots as “tartan dwarves” who were “polluting our stock” and suggested they should be ghettoized and “exterminated." In 2007, Johnson used the slur “Scotch” in a newspaper column.

In 2020, as prime minister, Johnson was widely reported to have described devolution – the process by which Scotland gained its own parliament – as “a disaster north of the border” and “Tony Blair’s biggest mistake.” After an angry backlash in Scotland, Johnson was forced to state publicly that he supported devolution, “though not when it’s used by separatists and nationalists to break up the U.K.”

The unpopularity of Johnson in the Celtic nation contrasts with the recent success of his party north of the border. Although the Conservatives, also known as Tories, are historically unpopular in Scotland, in recent years they have experienced an unlikely revival. From being peripheral players in Scottish politics less than a decade ago, the party has risen to become the country’s undisputed main opposition to the Scottish Nationalists, as the issue of independence polarizes the electorate into nationalist and unionist camps.

However, Scottish Conservative success is not purely down to the polarizing independence debate. Under previous leader Ruth Davidson – a popular figure in the nation – the party took a notably more socially liberal line than most of their Westminster counterparts, and have stuck to such an approach since Ross assumed the leadership in 2020.

The distancing of the Scottish Conservatives from the U.K.-wide operation is perhaps ironic given the commitment of the party to the union, and the determination among Conservatives to ensure that Scotland does not drift further away from England.

The wider political context also suggests that picking a fight with their Scottish representatives is dangerous territory for an organization whose official full title is the Conservative and Unionist Party. Pro-independence sentiment in Scotland remains high – 52% stated they would back secession in a recent poll – and independence supporting parties won a majority of votes and seats in last year’s Scottish parliamentary elections.

Entering their 15th year in charge of the Scottish government, the Scottish National Party, or SNP, have turned the nation into something of a one-party state, and are determined to push for another independence referendum. They argue that voters only rejected independence in 2014 on the grounds that they would remain members of the European Union. Scotland voted in favor of remaining within in the EU in 2016 by a comfortable margin, but the nation was dragged out of the bloc on the strength of the English and Welsh votes.

The Conservative Party have ruled out another referendum on independence, which would require U.K. government approval. However, the SNP have previously suggested that they would go ahead with their plans for a poll even if Westminster does not give its consent, teeing up a constitutional crisis.

Although central government would appear to have the law on its side, Scottish public opinion is unlikely to take kindly to an imperious attitude being taken in London. For Scots of all political persuasions, Westminster arrogance is one of independence’s most effective recruiting agents.

And it is precisely for that reason that Scottish Conservatives are so keen to see Johnson go. He is not only seen as a thorn in the side of Scottish unionism, but also locking in the SNP’s dominance of the nation’s politics. Speaking to the BBC, former MSP Adam Tomkins said: “All of the bad days the Scottish Tories have in Holyrood are not caused by the Scottish Tories in Holyrood, they are caused by events 400 miles south. And they need to reflect on that.”

“The Scottish Conservative Party have a range of really important, substantive ideas to bring to the table in Scotland about economic policy and about social policy, and they are being drowned out because of the pantomime of the politics of Boris Johnson," Tomkins said.

The risk, if Johnson stays in power, is that the Conservative Party continues to pull in different directions over the border. A potentially acrimonious divide could see unionism’s most ardent defenders inadvertently make the case for their opponents. It is yet another complicating factor to consider for Conservative MPs, as they watch their floundering leader and debate whether to stick or twist.

Categories / Government, International, Politics

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Johnson crisis reveals divisions between Scottish and English Tories

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