BRITAIN must do all it can to avoid an “unnecessarily divisive Brexit,” Ruth Davidson has insisted as she said that paying for access to the single market was worth considering.

Speaking at the Institute of Directors in London, the Scottish Conservative leader urged both sides in the debate to treat each other's position with respect and not revert to accusations of racism on one side or “remoaning” on the other.

The Edinburgh MSP also stressed the need to engage in a proper conversation with European partners, show them respect too and not fall into an “easy and comforting trading of insults”.

She launched a bitter attack on Ukip, urging its politicians to “grow up”.

The party leader criticised them for “gleefully rubbing Europe’s noses in” the referendum result and decried former party leader Nigel Farage for “needling Europeans by telling them their economies depend on hungry British consumers”.

Delivering a lecture named after women's rights champion Viscountess Rhondda, which last year was given by Julia Gillard, the former Australian Prime Minister, Ms Davidson said: “To ensure we choose the path of openness and engagement, above all, we must do all we can to avoid an unnecessarily divisive Brexit.

"That starts with coming back together and healing the divisions here at home that the referendum campaign has caused."

Stressing how the tone of the Brexit negotiations and how Britain left the Brussels bloc was important, she explained: “I fought to keep this United Kingdom together in the Scottish referendum of 2014 because I believed, and I still believe, that Britain is a force for good in this world and the global community is better for Britain being fully engaged in it. With Brexit, that reputation is now being tested.

“And the global community is now watching to see how we comport ourselves. Whether – in the words of Simon Walker[IoD Director General] – ‘we give way to negativity, and a nasty vision of a backward looking, introspective Britain’. Or whether we step forward, step up our engagement.”

Last week, David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, posited the idea that Britain might be prepared to consider paying for certain levels of access to the single market even after the country had left the EU. At the weekend, his Cabinet colleague Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, played down the idea, describing it as just speculation.

But when asked if the idea of cash for single market access was a good one, Ms Davidson, in a question and answer session following her speech, said: “It is worth considering what it is we, as a nation, can gain from having access to some of the things that were given us by right from membership.

“If we want access to the single market and that requires a payment, then that is something that should be considered. I don’t think that people feel any less of a sovereign UK for having an EU trade deal than having 27 individual trade deals.”

Asked why she had changed her mind on supporting the UK having membership of the single market – she expressed support for the idea in July after the referendum – Ms Davidson replied: “Of course, I believe in single market membership; that’s why I voted remain; that’s why if there was another referendum tomorrow I would still vote remain; it’s a good thing…

“I don’t like the idea in the way the question was put to me by the BBC: was free movement of people a price worth paying? Freedom of movement of people has many advantages as well as disadvantages; that’s why I was on the side I was.

“In terms of the question on access to the single market; there is a misunderstanding[that] there is binary choice; you either have access or not. It’s not like that; you have gradations of access. Of course, I want the maximum gradation of access we can have and I will continue to argue for that.”

Meantime, asked if Nicola Sturgeon was now fearful of holding a second referendum on Scottish independence, given the latest poll should a fall in support for independence, the Scottish Conservative leader referred to the Quebec referendum. “The SNP are aware that in that example; if you lose a second constitutional referendum, even if it is by the slimmest of margins, by half a point, as it was in Quebec, then support for nationalism goes off a cliff.”

She noted: “I don’t think they will hold it unless they are absolutely guaranteed 100 per cent that they will win it because then they’ll be frightened of what happens if they lose.”

Ms Davidson added: “Even people who would vote Yes are looking and craving a bit of stability…They want peace for a couple of years. So my plea to Nicola Sturgeon is not to stop believing in independence, because that is her raison d’etre, but to give the people of Scotland a break and take it off the table for the rest of the Parliament so we can all breathe easy for a bit.”

Responding to her speech, a spokesman for Michael Russell, the Scottish Government minister, said: “Ruth Davidson’s call for a more respectful EU debate is welcome but highly hypocritical.

“It is the Tories who are turning their backs on our European partners, who are refusing to guarantee that EU citizens can remain in the UK, who stood back as judges were attacked and who are completely disrespecting the vote of the people of Scotland.

“If Ms Davidson was serious about maintaining good relations with the EU, she would be demanding that the UK Government seek to remain in the single market – as she was doing just a few months ago – instead of enthusiastically signing up to the hard-right Tory Brexit, which her colleagues in Westminster are now pursuing,” he added.