Douglas Ross claimed he clashed with Boris Johnson over the Prime Minister’s controversial comments that devolution has been a "disaster" for Scotland.
The Scottish Tory leader said he had been in touch with the Prime Minister following his damaging exchange with Tory MPs from the north of England this week.
Ross and other Scottish Tories were left furious when Johnson was caught out telling MPs on a zoom call that devolution had been Tony Blair's "biggest mistake".
In a BBC interview Ross said: "Yes, I’ve been in touch with the Prime Minister this week, but don’t share what we discuss. It is always is a robust exchange of opinions and it is healthy that we can have disagreements where there is disagreement and we can agree where that is in the best interests of Scotland.”
The "robust exchange" of views phrase is usually polite code for a blazing internal political row. Johnson's comments were seen as a gift to the SNP.
Ross added: "That is what people expect, they don’t want politicians to agree 100 per cent with each other all the time."
In a desperate defence of the PM, Ross claimed: “He is someone who absolutely supports devolution but he has real concerns after 13 and half years our education standards have plummeted down international rankings, how we have hospitals that cannot be opened, how our economy was sluggish long before the covid pandemic. There are real issues that we could focus on if the priority of the Scottish government was on services we use day in day out instead of their obsession with independence."
Johnson is self-isolating in Downing Street but Ross faces an awkward weekend at the online Scottish Conservative Conference where he has to deliver a big speech and host an virtual contribution from the Prime Minister on Saturday.
Ross used his speech to the UK Conservative conference to send a rocket to Downing Street that “the case for separation is being made more effectively in London than in Edinburgh”.
Ross has since rejected suggestions that the Scottish Conservatives should split from the UK party.
