Ian Blackford challenges Johnson to call early general election

The SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has challenged the ‘dead parrot’ Boris Johnson to call a snap general election, despite Stirling MP Alyn Smith saying the party is instead focussed on an independence referendum.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, where Johnson faced down calls to resign from both opposition parties and from within his own party, Blackford said: “A few weeks ago I compared the Prime Minister to Monty Python’s Black Knight, actually turns out I was wrong. He’s actually the dead parrot.

“Whether he knows it or not, he’s now an ex-prime minister.

“But he will leave behind two deeply damaging legacies. I hope the dishonesty of his leadership follows him out of the Downing Street door.

“But the other legacy is that of Brexit, and that will stay, because I’m sad to say that the Labour Party now fully supports [Brexit].

“Scotland wants a different future, not just a different prime minister. So if the Prime Minister won’t resign, will he call a general election and allow Scotland the choice of an independent future free from the control of Westminster?”

To which Johnson replied: “I notice that his remark that the Labour Party have given up on returning to the European Union was not greeted with rapture by the benches opposite, and that’s because it’s not true. They want to go back in just as he does. I think that is a terrible mistake. It would be anti-democratic.

“And as for the referendum that he wants, well we had one of them, as I have told him before, in 2014.”

Meanwhile, Smith was asked by Sky News last night whether it was the SNP’s position to back a snap general election.

Smith said: “No it’s not. Our priority is an independence referendum, we’ve set out our timetable on how to achieve that."