Differing opinions on appointment
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MORAY'S top politicians have responded to confirmation today of Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party, and the UK's new Prime Minister.
Nearly 160,000 Conservative members voted in the leadership election, with an 87.4 per cent turnout - Mr Johnson polled a clear majority with 92,153 of the votes (66.4 per cent), almost twice that of Jeremy Hunt who polled 46,656 votes.
Moray's Conservative MP Douglas Ross said: “Boris has been the favourite throughout this campaign and the significant margin of victory shows that he has support for a large proportion of the Conservative Party. He will stand-up for the union, unite the party, deliver Brexit and allow us as a country to move on."
Mr Ross added: "All the candidates in this race would have made a very good Prime Minister and Boris will deliver for the country. My priority will be getting the best deal for Moray, Scotland and the whole of the UK."
Meanwile, Moray MSP Richard Lochhead warned that the new Prime Minister cares little for the people of his constituency.
He said: "It is deeply concerning that Boris Johnson has been given the keys to number 10 - his victory shows just have far to the right the Conservative Party has swung.
"Our new Prime Minister is an extreme, old Etonian populist, who couldn’t be more out of touch with ordinary folk in Moray and it is astonishing that our local MP campaigned for him to lead the UK.
"Boris Johnson holds some dangerous views, as well as being utterly lacking in any principle. It seems the UK now has our very own Trump elected to the highest office of the UK by 160,000 Conservative Party members."
He added: "Neither Moray nor Scotland voted for Brexit and we certainly didn’t vote for Boris Johnson to be Prime Minister. This is an anxious time for Moray and Scotland just now, particularly given he is prepared to see us crash out of the EU without a deal."
