ALISTER Jack has insisted he has “no cause to question” Boris Johnson’s integrity despite more than 35 letters of resignation from members of the UK Government which questioned the Prime Minister’s honesty.
Despite numerous instances where the Prime Minister has been accused of misleading Parliament, including over partygate where he insisted there were no parties, the Scottish Secretary said he only bases how he feels about the party leader on his own personal interactions with him and claimed he had “never pulled the wool over my eyes”.
This week it emerged Johnson was told about an investigation into the inappropriate behaviour of his former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher in 2019 – despite previously claiming he knew of no specific allegations against him. He was then forced into an embarrassing televised apology.
The Scottish Secretary also said although loyalty is important to him in politics, he would not quit his post if Johnson was to resign.
Jack added he had spoken to Johnson late Tuesday evening and said the Prime Minister was feeling “robust” and they did not discuss the resignation of Rishi Sunak as chancellor.
When asked if he felt Johnson was honest, Jack said: “I have no cause to question him.
“In all my dealings with him I’ve found him to be someone who gets it, wants to spread the capital across the whole UK and wants to deliver for Scotland. I can only take people as I find them.
“He has never said one thing and done another and has never tried to pull the wool over my eyes.
“I have always found him to be straight down the line. He has apologised for Chris Pincher, and I just think in life and business, when you deal with people and they play you with a straight bat, then you can get on and do business with them.
“You have to take people as you find them, not as you hear speculation about them or read people’s opinions about them. I think that’s only fair.”
With regards to the fixed penalty notices Johnson and Sunak (both above) received for their attendance at a birthday party for the Prime Minister during lockdown, Jack claimed they were both “mugged” by a cake. He also refused to be drawn on what it would take for him to stop backing Johnson, adding it would be “silly” to get into hypotheticals.
“He [Johnson] was mugged, as was Rishi, by a birthday cake they didn’t see coming as they sat in the Cabinet Office,” the Scottish Secretary said.
“They didn’t attend a party, a party arrived and caught them out. Let’s be honest about this. The police saw the word party and gave the pair of them a fixed penalty notice.”
Asked if he should base his loyalty to the PM on how he treats the country rather than how he treats him, Jack said: “What I’ve seen him do while I’ve been in Cabinet. I’ve seen him say he would deliver Brexit and a trade agreement, and he did. I’ve seen him say that the cavalry coming over the hill would be a vaccine to deal with the Covid crisis.
“And we backed all the horses in the development of a vaccine and most of them got to the finishing line.
“We then got the vaccine into people’s arms. We went through various iterations of that, we had the booster before Christmas last year rather than the lockdown.
“We’ve had the war in Ukraine and you’ve seen the Prime Minister come second in the Eurovision Song Contest on the back of that.
“That was a joke, you’re supposed to laugh,” Jack added.
The Scottish Secretary continued: “You get my point, he has stepped up to the plate massively on supporting Ukraine. I think the cliche he gets the big calls right he does that. I work with him and the things he says he’s going to deliver on, he has delivered on them.”
Sunak quit his post moments after Sajid Javid threw in the towel as health secretary with both questioning Johnson’s integrity in their resignation letters on Tuesday.
