RUTH Davidson has performed a stunning u-turn and told Scots Tories that she can now work with Boris Johnson.
The Scottish Tory chief has previously been massively critical of the tousle-haired old-Etonian.
The Scottish Tories even launched a secret campaign to stop Johnson becoming the new party leader.
It was code-named operation arse, one senior Tory source said, “so we’d all be clear who we were talking about.”
The plot was hatched after internal polling suggested the Tories would lose the 12 Westminster gains they made at the 2017 snap election.
During a debate ahead of the 2016 referendum, Davidson accused Johnson’s leave campaign of telling lies over Brexit, she condemned remarks made last August, when Johnson compared women wearing a burka to bank robbers.
She even barred him from appearing at the party’s conference in Aberdeen.
But speaking to the Scottish Daily Express, the Scots Tory boss said she was now ready to work with him.
Nicola Sturgeon accused her opposite number of falling “meekly into line”.
Davidson said she would judge each candidate running to replace Theresa May against three tests – strengthening the Union, advancing Scotland’s interests, and healing the divisions of the 2014 and 2016 referendums.
Asked if she could work with Johnson if, as polls predict, he wins the race, she said: “I have worked with him when he was Foreign Secretary. I will work with whoever the Prime Minister is.”
She added: “I haven’t had a phone call yet to ask me to run his campaign in Scotland. I am not expecting the call.
“But I will genuinely judge him on the same criteria as I judge any of the candidates.”
Davidson also insisted that the party’s “core vote” appeared to be “holding up reasonably well” - despite the most recent poll suggesting the Tories would come in fifth place tomorrow, taking just 7% of the vote across the UK.
Sturgeon tweeted: “There’s a pattern here. When bad things look unlikely to happen (ie Brexit before the referendum or Boris as PM a few months ago), Ruth Davidson opposes them because it’s safe. But when these things do happen or look likely to, she falls meekly into line. That’s not leadership.”
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