A CONSERVATIVE MSP who ran against Ruth Davidson for the leadership has renewed calls to split from the UK party.

Murdo Fraser said a “Canadian model” – which would allow a separate centre-right party to contest Holyrood elections – could boost Unionist votes at the next poll.

He previously suggested setting up a new centre-right force when he ran for the Scottish Tory leadership in 2011.

The idea has gained fresh traction following the election of Boris Johnson to Number 10, but Ms Davidson dismissed it in a newspaper column over the weekend.

Mr Fraser, the MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, has now renewed calls for a shake-up – and pointed to the system in Quebec, where two independence referendums have taken place, in 1980 and 1995.

Writing in The Scotsman, he said: “The Conservative Party of Canada, despite its electoral successes at a federal level, does not contest elections to the Quebec National Assembly.

“Instead, Quebec Conservatives vote for the Quebec Liberal Party, which despite its name has been independent of the Canadian Liberals – the party of Justin Trudeau – since 1955, and sits somewhat to their right on economic issues.”

Mr Fraser said the notion of different political parties at different levels “is the norm across Canada”.

He said he understood the concerns of Tory colleagues and MPs who “feel that their constituents should have the right to vote directly for the party of Government in a Westminster election”.

He added: “But, if we were to adopt a Canadian model of political parties, that would all still be possible.

“The key battleground ahead for us is 2021 – the Scottish Parliament elections – where a victory for the SNP with a majority of seats at Holyrood for pro-independence parties will lead to them claiming a mandate for a second referendum.

“The priority for unionists, of all parties, must be to defeat them in that objective.

“The lesson of politics in Quebec is that when the forces of federalism come together they can see off the threat of separation. If it worked there, it could work here.”

However, Mr Fraser rejected any suggestion that the Scottish Tories should split from the UK party simply as a reaction to Mr Johnson’s election.