RUTH Davidson has urged Boris Johnson to keep David Mundell at the Scotland Office as the new Prime Minister prepares to make appointments to his new Cabinet.

The Scottish Conservative leader praised her colleague, saying he had a wealth of experience and that she had a “fantastic working relationship” with him.

“The new Prime Minister would do well to take David’s advice on Scotland. He knows the Scottish Government inside out. He has sat across the table from Nicola Sturgeon and looked her in the eye many times. That experience will be invaluable to the new Prime Minister.”

Ms Davidson added: “If the Prime Minister chose to keep on David Mundell, I would be very happy with that. “

The MP for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale has been Scottish Secretary since May 2015 following David Cameron’s victory in the General Election of that year; he was previously a junior minister at the Scotland Office.

The feeling is at Westminster is that the 57-year-old is more likely than not to keep his job to "mentor" the new ministers expected to be created at the Scotland Office as part of the bid to strengthen the Union.

This is despite the fact that he has been critical of Mr Johnson in the past and has railed against the possibility of a no-deal Brexit, which, he has said, would pose the biggest threat to the Union and wreak economic disaster on Scotland and the UK.

Mr Mundell has accused the incoming PM as being someone "focused on his own self-interest and not on the interests of our country" and has made clear he believes he is "not an asset" to the party in Scotland.

The Scot’s Cabinet colleagues, Philip Hammond, David Gauke and Rory Stewart have all pre-announced their resignations because they cannot sign up to Mr Johnson’s no-deal loyalty pledge. The Scottish Secretary has, however, stayed silent on the matter, giving credence to the suspicion he wants to keep his job.

When The Herald pressed him on the matter earlier this week, the Secretary of State declined to give a definitive answer.

Today, he is likely to come under intense pressure at the last Scottish Questions of the session from his political opponents.

The SNP ridiculed the Conservative MP, noting how he had threatened several times previously to resign over the threat of a no-deal Brexit, but had now deployed a “reverse ferret” manoeuvre and was determined to stay in post.

"No one will be surprised that David Mundell has performed another reverse-ferret on his latest threat to resign; the man is as spineless as a jellyfish,” declared Pete Wishart, the SNP’s Shadow Commons Leader.

"By grovelling at Boris Johnson's feet, the Tory Scottish Secretary has become a shameless parody of himself, proving there are no depths to which he won't stoop in order to keep his ministerial salary, plush office and benefits.”

The Perth MP added: “But the serious point here is that, if Mundell serves in a Johnson Cabinet, he will be backing a no-deal Brexit, which he knows would be devastating for Scotland; that is a scandalous dereliction of duty, which leaves him without a single shred of principle or integrity.”