Jacob Rees-Mogg has been told to stop belittling Scottish Tories after he branded Douglas Ross “a lightweight” for telling Boris Johnson to resign over the Partygate scandal.
The leader of the House of Commons was widely mocked for claiming the leader of the Scottish Conservatives had never supported the prime minister and was “not a big figure in the party”.
Speaking on BBC’s Newsnight Mr Rees-Mogg said: “Douglas Ross has always been quite a lightweight figure.”
Earlier he had told LBC that Mr Ross, who has served as leader of the Scottish Conservative Party since 2020, had “never been” a supporter of the PM.
But politicians north of the border jumped to defend Mr Ross and nearly two-thirds of Scottish Tory MSPs have now publicly called for the prime minister to quit.
SNP president Michael Russell said Mr Ross was experiencing "utter disdain and contempt always shown by their London leadership with regard to Scottish views".
Tobias Ellwood, Conservative chairman of the Commons defence committee, dismissed the belittling as “unhelpful”.
He told Times Radio: “Collectively we are Conservatives and it’s that collective view which is attractive to the nation.
“Starting to make personal jibes at this point shows that we are actually proving to the nation…we don’t deserve to be in office.
“So let’s draw a line under that particular approach.”
The row comes as the Commons Standards Committee on Thursday recommended Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski should be suspended for one day after he was found to have breached MPs rules over an apology he gave.
The Shrewsbury MP caused "significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons" when he apologised for breaking bullying rules after saying he was only doing it because he had "no alternative" and would face further sanctions if he refused.
