Boris Johnson will not meet the leader of the Scottish Conservatives as he travels north to promote his levelling up agenda.
The Prime Minister is in Scotland on Monday, to announce an agreement with the Scottish Government on the plan to create new green freeports.
But with Douglas Ross the leader of the Scottish Tories, among those in the party who have called for Mr Johnson to quit after lockdown parties in Downing Street, there will be no meeting between him and the Prime Minister.
I hope this is his farewell tour, he is a man who is deeply unpopular up here.
And SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said the visit north should be Mr Johnson’s “farewell tour”.
Mr Blackford told Sky News: “This is Prime Minister who is not going to meet his own Scottish Conservative leader, even the Scottish Conservatives want Boris Johnson to go.
“I hope this is his farewell tour, he is a man who is deeply unpopular up here.
“More than 75% of Scots think he should resign and I think people right up and down these islands recognise that this is a Prime Minister who no longer has moral authority.”
While there is speculation that Chancellor Rishi Sunak could be a potential successor to the Prime Minister, Mr Blackford argued it was more important for Scots to be given a choice on independence.
He insisted: “It’s not a choice about Boris Johnson or Rishi Sunak or anybody else, it’s about the choice of the people of Scotland to choose their own future.”
But Scotland Office minister Iain Stewart argued by promoting freeports Mr Johnson was “getting on with the job”.
Mr Stewart, the MP for Milton Keyes South, told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “I think what the Prime Minister is doing is showing we are getting on with the job, we are setting out a comprehensive and bold vision of what we want the UK and Scottish economy to be.
“We’re investing massively, whether it’s in freeports, whether it’s in the levelling up agenda.”
Pressed on why no meeting has been scheduled with Mr Ross, Mr Stewart defended the Prime Minister, saying the two leaders are regularly in contact”.
The minister added: “When I go up and visit around Scotland, sometimes I meet with my MSP colleagues, sometimes I don’t.”
