Boris Johnson has been accused of treating the Union with “utter disdain” to save his own skin.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said English Conservatives were “publicly undermining the Union” as he again called on the Prime Minister to resign over the partygate scandals in Downing Street.
Confronting Johnson as Westminster awaited the Sue Gray report, Starmer said: “Throughout this scandal The Tories have done immense damage to public trust.”
He also addressed the jibe by Johnson loyalist Jacob Rees-Mogg, who accused Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross of betrayal for calling for Johnson to resign.
Starmer said: “When the leader of the Scottish conservatives said the Prime Minister should resign, the Leader of the House called him a lightweight.”
“English conservatives publicly undermining the Union by treating Scotland with utter disdain. How much damage are the Prime Minister’s cabinet prepared to do to save his skin?”
Johnson refused to respond to questions on the party scandals or the police inquiry into Downing Street lockdown parties, saying he could not comment on ongoing investigations.
To cheers from his own benches Johnson accused Starmer of being “a lawyer not a leader” and said he had made all the big calls on the pandemic.
But Starmer extracted a pledge from Johnson to publish the Sue Gray report as soon as he received it.
He said: “The Prime Minister’s continual defence is ‘wait for the Sue Gray report’. On December 8 he told this House ‘I will place a copy of the report in the library of the House of Commons’.
“His spokesperson has repeatedly stated that means the full report, not parts of the report, not a summary of the report, not an edited copy. So, can the Prime Minister confirm that he will publish the full Sue Gray report as he receives it?”
Johnson replied: “We’ve got to leave the report to the independent investigator, as he knows, of course when I receive it, of course, I will do exactly what I said.
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