Davidson admits she does not know if PM believes in Brexit

Ruth Davidson said being “hopelessly conflicted over Brexit” was one of the reasons she resigned her leadership of the Scottish Tories.

She also criticised the way Boris Johnson has suspended Parliament, saying it looks like a politically motivated decision.

Appearing on ITV’s Lorraine for her first TV interview since stepping down in August, Ms Davidson said: “I was quite close to David Cameron and Theresa May, I’m not close to Boris Johnson, I’m not going to pretend that I’ve ever been part of his inner circle

– I haven’t – so I don’t know why the government chose to do that and that’s one of the things the judges are going to be deciding and what the Scottish case looked at.

“They certainly didn’t manage to take the country or the Parliament along with them as they did it and there are questions about that.”

Following Mr Cameron’s comments that Mr Johnson does not believe in Brexit but instead puts his own interests first, the Edinburgh Central MSP said: “I don’t know whether he desperately believes in Brexit or he doesn’t believe in Brexit and I’m not going to pretend that I do.

“But I think people can tell if politicians are basically telling the truth or not and if they can tell if they mean what they say.”

Ms Davidson added: “I’ve always put my work first and the job first and the role first and sometimes that means my wider family has suffered and now I’m making a different choice because I’ve been hopelessly conflicted over Brexit,” she said.

“I believe in Remain but I also believe that if you ask a question and say it’s too big for politicians to make the decision and the country has to and the country makes a decision – even if it isn’t the decision I would have made – you’ve got to honour that.”

Now I’m making a different choice because I’ve been hopelessly conflicted over Brexit. RUTH DAVIDSON