THE new leader of the Scottish Conservatives has accused the SNP of lacking “respect” for the royals as he claimed one in three of their MSPs did not attend a speech the King gave at Holyrood.

Russell Findlay, who was voted to replace Douglas Ross last week, made the claim at a fringe event at Tory conference on Sunday.

Speaking at a panel on the future of the Union, Findlay said he had counted 22 empty seats on the SNP benches when the King addressed the Scottish Parliament on Saturday to mark the institution’s 25th anniversary.

He said this demonstrated “anti-monarchy sentiment” within the party.

Findlay (above) said: “There wasn’t anyone in that room who couldn’t have felt moved about the power of his speech, which symbolised, I think, the power of our enduring Union.

“What also struck me when I looked around at the SNP benches, I saw and counted 22 empty seats. So… at least one in three of them hadn’t even bothered to turn up.

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“Going into the 2014 referendum, Alex Salmond tried to pretend that nothing would change, that we would have the monarchy, we would have the pound sterling.

“But deep down within the nationalist movement, of course, is an anti-monarchy sentiment, and that, I think, was evident by the fact so few of them turned up in parliament yesterday to show their respect.”

Asked by Alex Burghart, the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, if that had been “very disrespectful”, Findlay replied: “Yes.”

The SNP were approached for comment.