THE father of a child who was killed in the 1996 Dunblane school shooting has said Boris Johnson is "totally unsuitable" to be PM after comments he made about the tragedy resurfaced.

Dr Mick North's five-year-old daughter Sophie was one of 17 people killed in the tragedy at the primary school. 

The dad hit out at the Tory leader after it emerged Johnson had compared the confiscation of hand guns that followed the shooting with "nanny confiscating toys".

Johnson made the comments in an article for a Canadian magazine, published in 1997. 

In the story he also compared the seizures to "one of those vast Indian programmes of compulsory vasectomy".

Speaking to The Herald, North said he knew of Johnson's stance at the time of the shooting, but was "still appalled" by them.

READ MORE: Dunblane joins in with US gun control demonstration

He said it was "an attitude that, to my mind, makes him totally unsuitable to be the UK's prime minister".

North went on: "None of the views Johnson expressed in the past should be viewed in isolation, excused as one-off errors of judgment or just as 'Boris being Boris'.

"They are part of a pattern that reflects exactly the kind of unsympathetic person he is."

The SNP has said the comments made it "clearer than ever that Boris Johnson is utterly unfit to lead the country".

Meanwhile, Scottish Tory interim leader Jackson Carlaw (below) said: "I strongly disagree with these views expressed some 22 years ago.

"The events in Dunblane were beyond all of our nightmares and even now the memory of those weeks is still strong.

"As a father then of two young sons, one of whom started in primary school shortly after those events, I vividly recall the concern of all parents.

The National:

"The banning of hand guns gave people the reassurance they needed.

"I supported it at the time and it has stood the test of time since."

In the article, Johnson wrote: "The men - and they are virtually all men - come in two at a time.

"They have aluminium suitcases, safes, plastic bags and set expressions.

"Nanny is confiscating their toys.

"It is like one of those vast Indian programmes of compulsory vasectomy.

"It is as if the state had decided to round up all the model train sets or the stamp collections, an operation causing immense distress to thousands of innocent enthusiasts, and just about as pointless.

"Thanks to a sweeping ban on handguns introduced here in the wake of the Dunblane, Scotland, massacre of schoolchildren last year, law-abiding gun-owners are now handing over their weapons here at a rate of 50 to 60 a day.

"An entire pastime will have been exterminated.

"Britain will be the only country in the world where it is forbidden to practise for an Olympic sport."

The outlawing of the majority of handguns followed the Dunblane shooting, which saw Thomas Hamilton shoot dead 16 children and their teacher before killing himself.