Boris Johnson raised the roof at the first post-lockdown Tory gathering by telling Scots delegates he was delighted to be at a conference where people could finally “shake hands and exchange bodily fluids”.
In a raucous, late-night address to the Scottish Conservatives, the Prime Minister congratulated the Scottish Tories on blunting Nicola Sturgeon’s ambitions for an SNP majority at the Scottish elections in May.
To cheers at an evening reception, he said: “It is the first time I’ve been able to thank you all in person for the heroic act of depriving the SNP of the majority they so craved.”
Johnson went on to launch an outspoken attack on the independence movement, claiming “ the gilt is coming off the gingerbread of the Scottish nationalists” and that “the lustre is coming off old twinkle toes”.
Johnson insisted afterwards, with a twinkle in his own eye, that he was referring to Alex Salmond and not First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
The Prime Minister raised the Tory spectre of a minority Labour government at Westminster “in cahoots with the Scottish nationalists”.
He said: “We can’t let it happen. How can we trust the government of our country to that deeply divided party that doesn’t know where it's going, basically a mob of Corbynista lefties apathetically directed by an Islingtonian cabal.”
The crowd lapped it up, as Johnson slammed Keir Starmer.
He said: “If we’d listened to Captain Hindsight on July 19th this country would still be in lockdown.”
Although covid masks are optional at the Conservative conference, there are few in the crowded room that Johnson spoke to. and no social distancing.
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