Douglas Ross has been forced to defend Boris Johnson over growing claims that the Tory government is mired in “sleaze” over lobbying by big business.
As the Prime Minister insisted there is nothing “sleazy” about his messages with Sir James Dyson and prepared to publish his text communications in the lobbying row Ross was left batting for Johnson in Scotland.
The Scottish Tory leader said: “I’m more than happy to say that there are serious questions to be answered over lobbying, and that’s why I think it’s right that there are eight separate inquiries into all of these issues.”
He added: “The serious concerns that have been raised just in the last few weeks cannot be allowed to continue.”
Johnson was also accused of approving “tax breaks by text” after he told billionaire inventor Sir James Dyson the Chancellor would “fix” a tax issue for his staff working on making ventilators in the early part of the pandemic.
A number of parliamentary and independent investigations have been set up after it also emerged that communications between Chancellor Rishi Sunak and former prime minister David Cameron about Greensill Capital came to light.
Ross told a campaign press briefing he believed all governments should operate in “the most transparent and open way”.
The Tory leader went on to make claims that Nicola Sturgeon had contact with an SNP party donor without the meeting being recorded and that Scottish Minister Fergus Ewing dined with controversial banker Lex Greensill and steel billionaire Sanjeev Gupta without officials present.
Ross said: “If they want to make sleaze an issue in this campaign the SNP should check out their own backyard first.”
He spoke as SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford wrote to the UK Cabinet Secretary urging officials to immediately secure and publish Boris Johnson’s correspondence on Covid contracts.
Blackford said: “The Prime Minister and most senior members of the Tory government are implicated in this scandal, which has seen Tory donors and friends handed contracts, special access, tax breaks and peerages, at a cost to the public purse of at least millions - if not billions - of pounds. It absolutely stinks and it is eroding public trust in the UK government.”
The Prime Minister said the texts exchanged with the billionaire Dyson would be published as Downing Street pointed the finger at former aide Dominic Cummings, who quit as Johnson’s senior adviser last year, for the leak.
The phone texts revealed Johnson had promised the entrepreneur he would “fix” a tax issue for Dyson staff working to develop ventilators early on in the coronavirus crisis.
Johnson told broadcasters during a campaign visit in Derbyshire: “Let me tell you, if you think that there’s anything remotely dodgy, or rum, or weird or sleazy about trying to secure more ventilators at a time of a national pandemic and doing everything in your power to do that then I think you’re out of your mind.”
