THE issue of Scottish independence “has gone away,” Theresa May has claimed as she said the Tories might not have won a Commons majority at the election but they had saved the Union.

Addressing a packed Scottish reception at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, the Prime Minister said elections could be “strange things” with the Tories in June having won 42.4 per cent of the overall vote, 2.3 million more votes, the highest share of the vote for over 30 years, 12 more elected MPs in Scotland but they failed to get an overall majority.

To cheers, she went on: “Those 12[new] Scottish Conservative MPs are doing more in the House of Commons to give the voice of Scotland in Westminster than all the SNP MPs put together. Because all the SNP is doing is pursuing their independence issue; but that’s gone away.”

At one point, Mrs May grabbed the hand of Ruth Davidson, standing beside her on the podium, and raised it, declaring to cheers: “We didn’t have the overall result[in the General Election] we wanted but together we saved the Union.”

On Brexit, the PM said the Tories had to deliver on the referendum vote but stressed she was “optimistic and ambitious” about what Britain could be; standing tall in the world as a “truly global Britain in the future and a United Kingdom”.

David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, turned up at the Scottish reception but appeared to disappear once Mrs May arrived to cheers.

She explained how the Conservatives thought they had won the argument about free market capitalism but “what we have seen with Jeremy Corbyn is that we have to make those arguments all over again”.

The PM insisted the party had to get out in the country to deliver the message that it was the “Conservative way,” which was the best means to deliver things that really mattered to people and the Tories would be “relentless” in taking that argument to Labour.

Mrs May noted how the change in Scottish Tory fortunes had been “monumental,” building Westminster’s success on those at the local councils.

At one point, the Scots reception revellers broke out into a rendition of Happy Birthday to mark the PM’s 61st birthday.