Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt, it’s the worst of both worlds for Scotland

Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt? Two outcomes that will leave people across Scotland facing the worst of both worlds.

The prospect of a man who sold a Brexit lie on the side of a red bus, or a man willing to follow through on those lies, regardless of the catastrophic economic impact.

The prospect of a man who is willing to flog our valued NHS across the Atlantic to Donald Trump in a trade deal, or a man who has overseen the mismanagement of the NHS in England, as well as showing hostility towards junior doctors, during his time as health secretary.

The prospect of a man who embarrassed the UK on the international stage as foreign secretary, or the man currently holding that office and who has continued the shameful policy of putting arms sales profits before peace.

Whoever possesses the keys to Number 10, it’s clear that Scotland is looking straight down the barrel.

With bumbling Boris leading the race and edging closer to occupying Downing Street, the threat to Scotland is growing. However, the toxic nature of Johnson extends well beyond his policies.

This is the man who described veiled Muslim women as looking like “letterboxes” and “bank robbers.”

When he was editor of the Spectator magazine in 2004, he reportedly authorised the publication of a poem that described Scottish people as “a verminous race” who should be exterminated.

He has also advocated that Scots should be banned from holding the office of prime minister, stating that “government by a Scot is just not conceivable.”

In a separate column for the Telegraph, Johnson used slurs to describe African people as “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles.”

At the 2017 Tory Party conference. he shamefully dismissed the victims of the conflict in Libya by saying that we only have to “clear the dead bodies away” before the north African country could become a tourist hotspot like Dubai.

His comments are beyond sickening. That he is the Tory Party’s favoured candidate tells you all you need to know about it.

That’s why at PMQs last week, I called on Theresa May to challenge the frontrunner over his abhorrent remarks. Her refusal to do so was damning and her silence deafening.

There was “uproar” from the Tory benches following my questions. Uproar because I called out rhetoric that has no place in society. Uproar that I dared mention his long list of racist and toxic insults.

Let there be no doubt – a Boris Johnson premiership will leave us with our very own mini-Trump who will stoke tensions and divide communities.

He is simply not fit for office, let alone the office of prime minister. Meanwhile in Scotland, we have already seen Ruth Davidson’s flip-flopping on who she would back for Prime Minister – first The Saj and then Michael Gove.

Now it looks as though Davidson is set on gladly campaigning for the likely Tory leader, denying that she’d previously accused him of lying. Worryingly, with a third of her Westminster group publicly backing Johnson, the Scottish Tories will play a key role in consigning Scotland to a Tory government led by him.

We deserve a better choice, a better future. A future that puts our economic and social interests, our living standards and livelihoods, our small and large businesses, our front-line services and our world-leading universities at the forefront.

I do not want to see the opportunities that I have enjoyed for years being ripped away from my children and grandchildren. But that is exactly what a Johnson or Hunt premiership will do to us.

Both candidates have warned that they plan to deny the people of Scotland their democratic right to decide our own future. That is a threat that is not only unsustainable but also confirmation that the so-called partnership of equals was nothing more than a hollow slogan.

Scotland’s future will be decided only by the people of Scotland – not by self-serving Tory leaders putting Conservative interests before the country’s interests.

Our future should be driven by a commitment to delivering a fair and progressive society, not by an ongoing Tory feud.

Whoever enters Downing Street, my message to them is clear – the SNP will challenge you relentlessly every step of the way.

This article originally appeared in the Daily Record.