AFTER a poll predicted the Tories would win just 15% of the votes in Scotland in the General Election – the lowest vote share for the party since Liz Truss was prime minister – party figures arrived in Aberdeen on Friday hoping to raise spirits.

While their conference got underway at the P&J Live arena, Rishi Sunak touched down at nearby Aberdeen Airport for a fleeting visit to Montrose in a desperate bid to hang onto whatever dwindling support they still have.

But even a gathering in the north east – well known as a top destination for the Tories north of the Border – couldn’t tempt Tory supporters as journalists arrived to an eerily quiet Event Complex which one reporter said reminded him of the now world-famous Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow.

Douglas Ross’s party have been compared to a few things over the years but his conference being described in the same breath as a failed event in a warehouse that made children cry can’t have been one of his favourites.

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Jokes aside, it is really an illustration of just how much people have given up on this party and how no one appears to trust them to deliver for Scotland.

Scottish Tory deputy leader Meghan Gallacher insisted Scotland had become a “stagnation nation” under the SNP with the future of the country now “on the line” at the General Election.

But anyone who was half-listening to the speech would likely have thought she was talking about her own party given the amount of empty seats in the "main" hall.

The conference is not even set to last two full days, but still the party could not get close to packing out a side room at the complex.

When it came to Sunak’s speech, he said the SNP want to set “Scots against the English” and the party would take Scotland back “literally three hundred years”.

Usually keynote speeches involve preaching to the choir and simply rallying supporters who are already behind you, but things began to feel awkward when Sunak begged the audience to “stick to our plan that is starting to deliver the change that people want to see”.

Every image that showed this clearly poorly attended event screamed too little, too late.

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It was simply dubbed a "blink and you’d miss it” address by opponents clearly undeterred by his feeble attempt to paint a picture of Scotland turning back the clocks to gory battles with the English. No one is buying it.

He said he expects to make gains in Scotland at the General Election, allegedly feeling positive about the response the doorsteps, but the evidence of this conference would suggest even Tory members clearly feel their fate is sealed.

As George Michael and Wham! fans descend on the arena for a hit-filled night out, it’s clear Scots see no fun and sunshine on offer from the Tories.