HURRICANE Johnson blew into Downing St last week, leaving a trail of debris and a discombobulated public in its wake.

The formation of Mr Johnson’s cabinet was a bloodbath. Disloyalty to the Brexit cause – and the new PM – was purged from the top table and in doing so Mr Johnson offered us the clearest signal yet of his intentions for Brexit. His so-called war cabinet has been formed with one purpose in mind: that the UK leaves the EU at the end of October.

Mr Johnson’s first week was characterised by the energy that many Tories had complained was lacking under Theresa May. The opening speech of his premiership was spat out at speed, with one eye on the clock and the other on his detractors. Prime Minister Johnson pledged money to everything and everybody. That his promises were un-costed didn’t faze his supporters. This was the moment they had been waiting for: when the great show rolled into town and Bojo rekindled their mojo.

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Where his supporters were invigorated, his critics were concerned. Mr Johnson offered no hope that he would try to be more serious as PM than he had been as an MP and media personality.

While celebratory fireworks may have lit the night sky over Tory HQ at the birth of their new king, things were more muted in Scotland. Corks were popped to drown the sorrows of the Scottish Tories, not to wet the new prime minister’s head.

The Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has a Boris-shaped problem. She used a newspaper column at the weekend to say that while she will support the new PM, she will not back no-deal.

“When I was debating against the pro-Brexit side in 2016, I don’t remember anybody saying we should crash out of the EU with no arrangements to help maintain the vital trade that flows uninterrupted between Britain and the European Union,” she said. “I don’t think the UK government should pursue a no-deal Brexit and if it comes to it, I won’t support it.’’

Given crashing out of the EU without a deal now seems the most likely outcome, trouble surely lies ahead. Mr Johnson was not Ms Davidson’s first choice to become leader. Nor her second or indeed, her third. She knows this posh, entitled, old Etonian and hard-Brexiteer is a gift for the SNP. Operation Arse was the name given to the Scottish Tory plan to keep Mr Johnson out of Downing Street and it fell flat on its … well, you get the drift.

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Over the years Ms Davidson has helped create the impression – and some would suggest, illusion – that the modern Conservatives are not the nasty party they once were. With a PM who embodies every stereotype Ms Davidson wants to shatter – she couldn’t have been dealt a worse hand. So, what will she do next?

In the coming weeks she will be scrutinised on the detail behind her vague assertion that she won’t “back” no-deal. In practice, such a pledge means little. As an MSP, Ms Davidson has no vote on Brexit, the direction of which will be steered by the new PM and – if we’re lucky – the House of Commons.

She will be expected to be far more vociferous in her condemnation of no-deal and the shenanigans her leader is considering to facilitate one. Mr Johnson hasn’t denied he would be willing to take the nuclear option of proroguing parliament to stop MPs blocking no-deal.

The time will come when Ms Davidson will have to finally live up to her straight-talking reputation and a wishy-washy newspaper column won’t cut it. Ms Davidson’s greatest skill is her ability to distance herself from her party’s policies when it suits. But if she wants to avoid accusations of hypocrisy then she needs to be centre stage, not merely muttering from the side-lines. When you’ve got Tory MPs who have said they would be willing to sacrifice their careers to bring down their own government if it pursued no-deal, an 800-word riposte looks lame in comparison.

Ms Davidson will also have to show she still exerts some influence over her Scottish Tory MPs. While the chances of success may be negligible, a high-profile crisis summit of sorts with them would give the impression she is still the woman in charge.

Boris Johnson might have the power, but Ms Davidson has the UK media at her disposal. She knows how to play the game, and if she wanted to put pressure on the PM there are plenty of television studios that would be delighted to accommodate her.

Of course, such measures would further fracture what is already a difficult relationship between the two leaders. Ahead of their private meeting in Edinburgh on Monday, the Scottish Tory leader was said to be fuming with Mr Johnson over his sacking of David Mundell and no-deal recklessness.

If she means what she says – and in this case we have no reason to believe she doesn’t – that crashing out of the EU with no deal would be a disaster, then it’s high time she got tough with her party.

If she fails to act decisively and with strength in this moment of crisis she will be viewed as complicit or worse, weak.

Some have suggested that she should be willing to put her own job on the line for the good of the country. Could Ruth Davidson do the unthinkable and threaten to resign to focus the minds of her Westminster counterparts?

A few years ago, when Ms Davidson was being talked up as a Tory superstar whose talents could take her as far as Downing Street, such a drastic measure would have brought with it leverage. But in this moment, with this prime minister – I doubt it would make much difference at all.

With a recent poll showing Conservative members would choose leaving the EU over the continuation of the union of the UK, Ms Davidson would just be another Scottish casualty lost to the hard-Brexit dream.

Therein lies the problem for Ruth Davidson. Her party is gripped by English nationalism and a frenzied and foolish ambition to exit the EU in the most damaging way possible.

With her influence waning and time running out, this would be the opportune moment for Ruth Davidson to live up to the hype. If her party has ever needed her to be outspoken and fearless, it is now.