Boris Johnson should pack his bags immediately in a bid to restore “some semblance of stability” in government, says an SNP MP.
The prime minister’s attempts to cling on to power came crashing to a halt on Thursday as he quit as Tory leader, saying he would stay on until the party elected a new head.
Politicians across the north and north-east have reacted to his departure, with Scottish Tory party leader Douglas Ross, saying Mr Johnson should leave before autumn.
SNP Gordon MP Richard Thomson told the BBC the prime minister had been “dragged kicking and screaming” towards the decision.
On his plans to stay in power until the autumn, Mr Thomson said: “I don’t think the position he has sketched out is tenable and I don’t think it can stand.
“There are major issues facing the UK as a whole and all the constituent parts of it.
“The idea that the prime minister is able to provide the stability and the continuity that might be needed just now is utterly laughable.”
He continued: “I think quite frankly the removal vans should be outside Downing Street no later than this evening.
“And they should be making arrangements to be put in place so somebody else can take over who is able to restore some semblance of stability and continuity to government because it is certain in my mind the person to do that is not Boris Johnson.”
I think quite frankly the removal vans should be outside Downing Street no later than this evening.
Richard Thomson, SNP MP for Gordon
The leader of the Scottish Tories said it would be “difficult” for the prime minister to continue in post until the party’s conference in October.
But he declined to offer any comment on the names of any potential candidates to take on the job full-time.
Mr Ross, in an interview with STV, said: “I mean, it may be from the 1922 committee that the process for electing a leader doesn’t have to be as long as that.
“But if it does go on for several weeks and months, my preferred option would be to see an interim leader in place.”
‘British politics dragged through the mud’
In an unapologetic resignation statement, Mr Johnson said he had fought to stay on because of a sense of “duty” to the “millions of people who voted for us” in 2019 when he won a landslide election victory.
“I have tried to persuade my colleagues that it would be eccentric to change governments when we are delivering so much and when we have such a vast mandate and when we are actually only a handful of points behind in the polls,” he said.
Jamie Stone, Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, said all those who backed Mr Johnson as leader in 2019 must “shoulder the blame for the absolute shambles that we, as a country, have had to endure”.
He added: “British politics has been dragged through the mud. Whoever and whatever comes next has a mammoth task in restoring our broken reputation.”
Andrew Bowie, MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, who resigned from government over the Owen Paterson affair, said he made that decision because he was “put in the inviduous position of defending the indefensible”.
The Conservative politician said MPs have since been sent out to “defend something for which they were not responsible for”.
He told the BBC this is “embarassing” and politicians “feel a sense of shame at having to do that”.
SNP Aberdeen North MP Kirsty Blackman said: “It’s a huge relief that we will no longer have Boris Johnson as prime minister.
“But we will still have a UK Government Scotland didn’t vote for, implementing a damaging Brexit Scotland voted against.”
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