PM has 'duty to be honest' about party - Scottish Tory leader

There are "serious doubts" over Boris Johnson's future if he cannot answer questions about an alleged Downing Street party during lockdown, the Scottish Conservative leader has said.

The UK government says it does not want to cut across a civil service probe into alleged parties during lockdown.

But Mr Ross said Mr Johnson should be able to answer a "simple question".

He added: "If he can't answer the question or crucially won't, that raises serious doubts. And if he's misled parliament, there is no going back on that."

Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, called for Mr Johnson to resign, saying he was "apparently not being truthful about his knowledge of these matters".

Labour has said the prime minister "can run, but he can't hide" from the row, adding that "the public has already drawn its own conclusion".

Taking questions about the row in the Commons, paymaster general Michael Ellis said a "fair and impartial investigation" had to run its course.

On Monday, ITV published a leaked email from the prime minister's principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, inviting 100 staff to "socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden" on 20 May 2020.

The invitation to the event encouraged staff to "bring your own booze" and "make the most of the lovely weather".

Strict lockdown rules were in place across London and the rest of the UK at the time, with people urged not to meet up with more than one person from another household outdoors.

Witnesses told the BBC that Mr Johnson and his wife had been among about 30 people who attended the gathering.

However, Mr Johnson has declined to say whether he was there or not, and his official spokesman has also refused to comment on the claims while senior civil servant Sue Gray continues to investigate.

The latest row has sparked fury from some Scottish Conservatives, with former leader Baroness Davidson saying that "nobody needs an official to tell them if they were at a boozy shindig in their own garden".

And Mr Ross told BBC Scotland that "we should be told right now" whether Mr Johnson had been in attendance or not.

He said: "These are rules that he himself put in place. His government urged and indeed demanded the public followed them - we have seen people punished for not following that guidance.

"If the prime minister himself has not followed that guidance, if he was at that party when others were told to remain in their homes and not mix with others, that is simply unacceptable. And if he has misled parliament, in my view he can't continue."

He added that it "shouldn't take hours to formulate an answer" to an "easy yes or no question".

"Hiding behind or waiting for the Sue Gray inquiry is not going to step the public demanding the answer to that question," he said.

"The prime minister has a duty to be up front and honest with the public, and he simply has to tell people, was he at this party or not - which would have been a clear and obvious breach of his own government's guidance.

"He should have done it straight away and answered the question everyone is asking."

Mr Ross's comments came shortly after Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs that "people across the country are aghast about the revelations about Downing Street's conduct".

The first minister said: "It appears [to be] not just one isolated breach, but serial breaches of guidance that people were following through painful sacrifices, right throughout this pandemic, and a prime minister who apparently is not being truthful about his knowledge of these matters.

"The office of prime minister would be greatly enhanced by Boris Johnson's departure from it, but more importantly I think at this moment in time the interest of the United Kingdom would be enhanced by that as well."

At Westminster, Mr Ellis took questions from MPs in the absence of Mr Johnson, and apologised "unreservedly for the upset that these allegations have caused".

He described Ms Gray as "a paragon of independence and integrity in the civil service", and said her probe would "establish the facts, and if wrongdoing is established requisite disciplinary action will be taken".