DOUGLAS Ross has denied he aided Russia by voting to remove Boris Johnson as Prime Minister.
Last week, the Scottish Tory leader claimed that any attempt to remove his boss in No 10 would "destabilise the situation and only help Vladimir Putin".
But on Monday night, he announced that he would not back the Prime Minister in the Tory party's no-confidence vote as he "cannot in good faith support Boris Johnson."
Asked about the change in position, he told the BBC that when war broke out in Ukraine, he “felt it wasn't the right time to change leader and get involved in an elongated leadership election.”
However, that changed when last night’s vote was triggered when 54 Tory backbenchers in Westminster submitted letters saying they had no confidence in the Prime Minister.
Mr Ross said: “And I had a choice in that vote not to delay things because of Ukraine, not to have any other choice but to support the Prime Minister and say I had confidence in him or to say I didn't have confidence, and I had to stick to my initial beliefs that the Prime Minister's actions have been damaging to the government, to the country.”
The MP for Moray said that was his final position.
Asked if he was aiding President Putin, Mr Ross said: “I didn't want to trigger this vote at this time.
“But 15% or more of my colleagues did, and therefore a vote was going to happen and I couldn't in good faith [back Mr Johnson], having looked at everything that has happened during the lockdown in Downing Street, in the Cabinet Office and other parts of Whitehall, which the Prime Minister oversees.
"And also responding to my constituents, people in Moray and across Scotland. They have been very vocal.”
He said the result of the ballot was “stark”.
Mr Johnson only narrowly won the vote, with 148 of his MPs, around 41% of the party, calling for him to go.
Mr Ross said the Prime Minister should consider his position.
“One of the positives of the Prime Minister is his response sometimes when things aren't going very well, he just keeps on going.
“But this isn't just some Scottish MPs and Welsh MPs, a few from a certain part of England, this is across the entire parliamentary party.
“From people who supported staying in the EU, and people who campaigned strongly to leave the EU, people who are on the right of the party, some in the centre and some on the left.
"This goes right through the parliamentary party. And I think that's why that number of 140 will be particularly troubling for the Prime Minister.”
In a separate interview with STV News, Mr Ross said: “That’s a decision for the Prime Minister but we know when Theresa May had a greater percentage number of MPs supporting her in 2018 when she faced a confidence vote, people were immediately saying it wasn’t good enough.
“Well, last night 41% of Conservative MPs felt that they couldn’t support the Prime Minister and that is a very high number.
“A hundred and forty eight is far higher than many people were expecting.”
Of Scotland’s six Tory MPs, only Scottish secretary Alister Jack and Bandd and Buchan MP David Duguid backed him.
Mr Ross insisted his position in the Scottish party was safe.
Earlier, the SNP’s depute leader, Keith Brown tried to encourage Holyyood’s Tories to hold a no-confidence vote in their own leader.
He said: “The one consistency with Douglas Ross has been his inconsistency. In his fourth position on the issue this year, last night Douglas Ross finally decided - once again - that he has no confidence in the Prime Minister and his own party leader.
“So how can he continue to front up the branch office of the Tories, who are led from Westminster by Boris Johnson? If the Holyrood Tories had any backbone they would hold their own indicative vote of no confidence in his leadership.”
“Douglas Ross’s latest view on Boris Johnson is that he’s not fit to run the country. It would be impossible, therefore, to foresee a situation where Douglas Ross can continue to lead the Scottish Conservatives with any credibility at all,” he added
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