IAN Blackford faced heckling from the Conservative benches as he opened a debate calling out the Prime Minister’s “disastrous actions”.
The SNP Westminster leader used his Opposition Day debate to bring forward a motion of censure and point out examples of Tory sleaze. He warned the UK Government that the public would not forget about these examples of “chaotic governance”.
Blackford said Johnson needs to be held to account, as he’s “up to his neck in scandals” and has been since becoming PM two years ago.
READ MORE: Westminster LIVE: MPs slam Boris Johnson's 'disastrous' conduct in SNP debate
“In the last few weeks alone, he ripped up anti-lobbying rules when one of his own was found guilty he is attempting to restrict the right to judicial review and he is seeking to undermine the independence of the Electoral Commission,” the MP told parliament.
“Month after month, scandal after scandal – the charge sheet gets longer and longer but not one single person is ever held to account.
“If the public is to have any confidence in this place – then that needs to change today.”
Blackford was not long into his speech when he faced loud heckles, shouting and laughing from the Conservative benches.
“You know, this is a debate that matters to people in the United Kingdom. And we can hear the behaviour and the cat calling of the members opposite. And it sums up this attempt to shut down democracy, to shut down our right to raise these important matters in this House,” he told those shouting him down.
"The Prime Minster has to respect democracy," Blackford went on. "He denies democracy when he stuffs the Lords with his Tory donor friends."
“But he must respect democracy when people in Scotland have voted for a parliament that has a right to call a referendum, to take us out of this toxic union.”
A number of Conservatives sought to intervene during Blackford’s speech, but when he said Lord Cruddas gave the Conservative Party £500,000 three days after he entered the House of Lords, Blackford said he would “gladly give way to anyone on the Tory benches who wants to stand up and justify that level of sleaze”.
No Conservatives requested an intervention at that time.
He said: “£3 million for a peerage in the House of Lords. What a price to be able to undermine our democracy.”
Later he said: “I think one of the public’s real angers about these scandals is the deep dishonesty that has been so openly on display. The truth and the Prime Minister have always been strangers.”
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