gareth mcpherson political editor

Ruth Davidson does not try too hard to conceal her disdain for Boris Johnson.

She decided against sitting in the audience for the Foreign Secretary’s speech yesterday, which was blamed on a timetable clash.

Their upbringings are polar opposite – Davidson went to a comprehensive in Buckhaven, while Johnson was schooled at Eton.

But it was Johnson’s opportunistic pursuit of Brexit that probably best explains her attitude towards him.

The Scottish Conservative leader recognises his appeal – before the address she said the former London mayor has the gift of the gab to lift the party out of its conference malaise.

The Tory gathering has been soaked in drudgery, not least because of a humiliating general election imposed on the party by a lame-duck Prime Minister.

Then there is Brexit, which far from solving the long-running party feud is making it worse.

Boris took to the stage with his trademark delivery of dishevelled pomp and hyperbole.

It was lapped up by the party faithful, many of whom are conflicted by his star quality and formidable intellect and his unfailing ability to harm his own party.

He made a token effort to play down his interventions on Brexit, insisting the “Cabinet is united” behind “every syllable” of Mrs May’s vision.

In a plea to colleagues he called for people to stop treating Brexit like a “plague of boils”.

Mustering every ounce of gusto, he declared it is time to “let the British lion roar”.

The passion was there, but it will take more than a bombastic Boris to replenish a party that is struggling to find its mojo.