Westminster politics needs more women at the top, the Scottish Conservative leader has said.

Ruth Davidson said it was vital the best person was appointed to each post in public life as it comes up but told Conservative activists in Manchester a mix of men and women at the top sent important signals.

All of the main Scottish political parties in Holyrood are led by women - in stark contrast to Westminster where none are.

The Conservative Party Conference is expected to be dominated by discussion of who will succeed David Cameron when he steps down as Tory leader and Prime Minister ahead of the next election.

Speaking at a fringe meeting, Ms Davidson said: "I hope the best people that come through are a good mix of men and women. I think it is important to the young women of this country that they think they can do anything.

"When I was growing up, Margaret Thatcher and the Queen were the two big people in the country. I asked, when I was told by a friend's mother that John Major had become Prime Minster, I apparently said 'can a man even be Prime Minister'? So that's the mindset I had.

"Nothing was ever going to stop me or get in my way but it is important people see people like them able to get on in our party, in every party, in every walk of public life.

"So yes, I would like to see more women at the top of politics at UK level as well as in Scotland."

The Scottish Tory leader explained her view had changed when she was appointed Tory leader north of the border.

She said: "I had never thought role modelling matters very much, because I have never really looked at who does a job and thought if they're like me then I can do that job too.

"So it never really occurred to me when I took on the leadership of the Scottish Conservatives it actually mattered to anyone else. But when I did, I got so many emails through, really, really personal, from mostly young men but some young women, across Scotland saying they were gay, that they weren't out yet, or they hadn't told their parents, or their school.

"They wanted to be in politics but had thought it wasn't for them even though - and I quote - 'even though I'm not a Tory', which appeared in nearly all of them. My election meant that it was something for them - I replied with a personal response to each and every person who wrote to me like that.

"It became apparent to me that actually it does matter who is at the top. I want the best person to lead our party at a UK level, I want the best person to beat the Labour Party at a UK level, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP."