Boris Johnson has sacked his top adviser on saving the Union, topping off a torrid Scottish week for the Prime Minister that saw him savaged for visiting a Livingston vaccine plant at the centre of a covid outbreak.
Former Scottish Tory MP Luke Graham was given his marching orders the day after Johnson returned from his controversial Scottish trip last Thursday, but the sacking has only been confirmed now.
Graham, who was MP for Ochil and South Perthshire for two years before being beaten by the SNP, had a role heading Downing Street’s Union unit charged with countering the nationalist push for a second independence referendum.
Rumours circulated in Westminster earlier in the week that Graham had been dumped but the Prime Minister’s spokeswoman crushed them claiming he was “a very valued member of staff"
Now, according to the Financial Times, Graham is to be replaced by Oliver Lewis, a key Tory figure in last year’s Brexit trade negotiations who will lead what one official described as a “beefed-up union unit”.
But Downing Street’s Union unit now has few staff with direct experience of tackling the SNP campaigning machine.
Graham may have become the fall guy for the controversial Prime Ministerial visit to Scotland last week which Nicola Sturgeon described at the time as “non-essential” travel during a pandemic.
The Daily Record revealed on Wednesday that the PM’s visited the Valneva vaccine plant in Livingston just 24 hours after a public health probe at the site, which uncovered 14 coronavirus cases.
In the Commons on Wednesday SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford blasted Johnson for his “shocking error or judgement” in visiting the plant for a risky photoshoot.
Blackford said: “What an absolute shambles that he’s gone to a plant where there was an outbreak.
“The Prime Minister can’t just explain away this absolutely shocking error of judgement.
“Anyone can see that his campaign trip to Scotland was utterly reckless.”
