Prime Minister Boris Johnston and Chancellor Rishi Sunak
By Lucy Ashton
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has filed a motion in the Scottish Parliament calling on the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer to resign immediately.
Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “The British public have made tremendous sacrifices over the past two years. They are looking on in abject horror at a Prime Minister and Chancellor who broke the rules that they themselves made and then lied about it for months. It is time for them both to go.
“I know that many Conservative voters, councillors and parliamentarians are horrified at how their party’s leadership has behaved. I urge them to speak out and send a message before the smell of this scandal comes to taint them too.
“If Boris Johnson gets away with breaking the rules it will become harder to hold those in power to account across the UK. The catastrophic mismanagement of Ferguson Marine should have led to Scottish ministers resigning yet Boris Johnson offers them a perfect opportunity to point at Westminster and wriggle off the hook. He is lowering the tone of politics everywhere.”
Meanwhile, Mr Cole-Hamilton’s motion is as follows: That the Parliament recognises what it sees as the tremendous sacrifice made by the British public since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the cancellation and postponement of significant life events, care home residents reportedly going months without family contact, loved ones dying alone in hospital and women giving birth alone; notes that the Metropolitan Police has issued the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer with fixed penalty notices for breaking the lockdown laws set by their own government; further notes reports that the Prime Minister broke the ministerial code by denying the knowledge of parties at Downing Street despite reportedly having partaken in one to celebrate his own birthday; believes that political leaders have a duty to follow the same regulations that they impose on the general public; urges Scottish Conservative Party MPs to re-submit their letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister; notes reports that Boris Johnson has become the first Prime Minister in history to be sanctioned for being found to be in breach of the law; considers that his continuing to stay in office will erode trust in government and undermine the political system, and calls, therefore, on Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak to resign the offices of Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer respectively, with immediate effect.