SCOTTISH Tory leader Douglas Ross's "grasp of reality is as weak as his party’s position in the polls", one SNP MSP has said after he urged pro-UK voters to unite behind his Conservative Party to defeat “dud” First Minister Humza Yousaf.

Ross told the Scottish Tory party conference the ballot “could not be more important” and declared that this year’s General Election will be a “battle for the soul of Scotland”.

It comes after a poll was presented to the conference suggesting the party faces losing as much as 58% of their voters in Scotland from 2019 and 2021 at the next election.

He outlined five key pledges he said the Tories would focus on, vowing to cut tax for Scots, attacking the Scottish Government for making the country the “highest-taxed part of the UK”, and pledged to put 1000 more police on the streets.

That was a commitment first made by the SNP when they came to power in 2007 – and while this was achieved, more recently police officer numbers have fallen to their lowest level since 2008.

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Ross also pledged to improve roads – saying his party would “deliver on the SNP’s broken promises” to upgrade key routes across the country.

On education, he added that the Tories are looking at how to “reduce class sizes, reinforce discipline in our schools and restore our traditional exam system”. For the NHS, he promised 1,000 additional GPs would be recruited “to ensure that no-one, anywhere in Scotland, has to wait longer than a week for an appointment”.

The commitments came as Ross claimed that 17 years of the SNP in power at Holyrood had resulted in a “poorer, smaller, and a more divided country”.

In his keynote speech to the Scottish Conservative conference in Aberdeen, he insisted that Humza Yousaf’s party “deserve to pay the price for failing Scotland for the last 17 years”.

Referring to the “Humza Useless” nickname given to the SNP leader by his opponents, Ross urged voters to use the forthcoming election to “give Useless his P45 and put his nationalist government on notice”.

The Scottish Tory leader insisted that the forthcoming Westminster ballot was “about the future of our nation” and a “battle for the soul of Scotland”.

He told how his party’s priorities of repairing roads, tackling NHS waits, improving education, making the country safer and cutting taxes were “the real priorities of the Scottish people”.

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But he said such changes could only happen “if the pro-UK, anti-SNP majority unites behind the Scottish Conservatives in seats across Scotland”.

After the speech, Aberdeen Central SNP MSP Kevin Stewart said: “Douglas Ross’s grasp of reality is as weak as his party’s position in the polls – with the latest one showing at 15%, as low as during the disastrous Liz Truss premiership.

“And that’s no surprise, having presided over a decade-and-a-half of austerity and scandal, leaving the Scottish Government and the people of Scotland to pick up the pieces.

“By voting SNP at the General Election, the people of Scotland have the opportunity to defeat Douglas Ross and every other Tory MP in Scotland, and deliver the strong voice that Scotland needs.”

The Scottish Tory leader later told journalists his party is “going to have a good election”.

Ross said: “I think we can hold the seats that we currently have and I think we can make gains, and those gains will be at the expense of the SNP, and I think we will have a good result in many seats right across the country.”