Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross dodges questions over his stance towards Dominic Cummings

Scotland's Tory Party leader, Douglas Ross, live on Good Morning Britain; Twitter - Credit: Archant

Scotland’s Tory Party leader said he now has ‘trust’ in Boris Johnson despite resigning from giverbnebt in May over the prime minister’s refusal to sack Dominic Cummings.

Douglas Ross became leader last week, mere months after resigning from the Westminster government over the prime minister’s failure to fire his top advisor over his lockdown-breaking trip to Durham.

Dominic Cummings drove 260 miles from London to Durham Country in late March in order to seek childcare support from his family.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Ross said he now had ‘trust’ in the prime minister.

‘He has the best interests of the UK at his core as does leaders across the United Kingdom,’ he said.

But a sceptical Kate Garraway, presenting the programme, then asked if he trusted Cummings.

Ross said: ‘I have never met Dominic Cummings. I have never spoken to Dominic Cummings. I don’t know Dominic Cummings.

‘I can only make my decision based on the information that I have and I made the decision back in May. It was the right one for me at the time and I believe it was still the right thing to do.’

He also confirmed that Cummings never contacted him to explain his actions.

Ross was then asked by co-host Adil Ray: ‘If you resign because you thought he did the wrong thing and you thought the consequences of it were quite severe, and people agree with you, then surely now nothing has changed between now and then.

‘Surely you don’t trust him, you don’t have your faith in him, and that’s why you resigned isn’t it? You’re in a position now where you do not have faith in the chief adviser to the Prime Minister. That’s right isn’t it?’

The Scottish Tory leader responded by saying he had ‘no remit over who is the special advisor to the prime minister’.

‘I’m not asking about that,’ Ray replied. ‘ I’m asking what your feeling is towards him.’

Ross replied: ‘I made that position perfectly clear and, as I said, my position hasn’t changed since May. What has changed is the focus that we need to have on rebuilding Scotland’s economy and, as you’ve said today, standing up for young people who have been so badly let down by the SNP.’