IAN Blackford has told the Prime Minister to “call it a day” during a fiery session in the Commons.
The SNP Westminster leader asked Boris Johnson why he was “clinging on” to power during Prime Minister’s Questions, telling him he was “clearly not up to the job”.
Mr Blackford, MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, referenced recent briefings against Mr Johnson by unnamed government sources, as well as his somewhat rambling speech to the CBI on Monday as reasons why he felt he was no longer suited for his post.
He said the Government had been “at its very worst” in recent weeks, adding: “At the centre of all of this is one man. A Prime Minister who is floundering in failure.
“So can I ask the Prime Minister, with his party falling in the polls and his colleagues briefing against him, has he considered calling it a day before he’s pushed out the door?”
Mr Johnson responded that what the public wanted to hear about was “what the Government is doing for the people of Scotland, and what the Scottish Government is doing for the people of Scotland, which isn't enough.”
He told MPs that a connectivity review due to be published later this week would “ensure that the people of Scotland are served with the connections that they need, which the Scottish Nationalist Party has totally failed to put in.”
Mr Blackford responded that Mr Johnson’s “officials have lost confidence in him. Tory MPs have lost confidence in him. And the public have lost confidence in him” before asking: “Why is he clinging on, when quite clearly he isn’t up to the job?”
The Prime Minister said he did not know “what [Mr Blackford] thinks he’s doing talking about party-political issues” before insisting: “What the people of Scotland want to hear is what on earth the Scottish National Government is doing. They're falling in the polls.
“Considering their manifold failures on tax, on education, on all the things the people of Scotland really care about, I'm not surprised.”
The Tory benches were well-stocked in today’s session, following a sparse turnout last week which led to fears Mr Johnson was losing support among his own party.
Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer began his questions to Mr Johnson by focusing on the plans to reform the social care system, accusing him of breaking his manifesto promise that nobody would have to sell their home to pay for their care costs.
He said: “At the last election, the Prime Minister promised that nobody would have to sell their home to pay for care. That is another broken promise, isn’t it?”
The Prime Minister replied: “No, Mr Speaker, because if he had looked at what we are proposing and if he is supporting what we are proposing, which is fixing something Labour never fixed in all their years…”
He added: “Most important of all, by putting the huge investment that we are making now in health and social care, we are allowing for the first time the people of this country to insure themselves against the potentially catastrophic, otherwise catastrophic cost of dementia, or Alzheimer’s.”
The Labour leader said Mr Johnson had managed to devise a “working class dementia tax” with the proposals.
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