JACKSON Carlaw has insisted he is confident and “energised” about the coming Holyrood election despite his party failing to hit its key target last month.

The acting Scottish Tory leader admitted it had been a “very difficult” general election because of Brexit, but the party was in “good shape” to challenge the SNP in 2021.

The Tories fared uniquely badly in Scotland in December, losing seven of their 13 MPs as their share of the vote fall by 3.5 per cent.

In England and Wales, the Tories gained both MPs and vote share.

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Even in London, Labour’s stronghold, the Tories maintained their MP numbers and lost only 1 per cent of their vote share.

By running a campaign based on rejecting Indyref2, the Scottish party also inadvertently helped Nicola Sturgeon claim she had a mandate for a new referendum when the SNP's vote went up and theirs went down.

Mr Carlaw, the frontrunner to replace Ruth Davidson as Scottish Tory leader next month, told BBC Radio Scotland that maintaining vote share had been “the key thing” for the party.

He said: “It was a very difficult election for us. We obviously in Scotland would have preferred that election to come on the other side of Brexit. We realised that that was going to be a big issue in the campaign.”

Our overall share of the vote held up reasonably well. It was our second best result in 25 years. People were predicting we were going to lose all our seats.

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“At the end of the day [we’re] disappointed, yes. But it puts us in a good shape as Scotland’s second largest party to now lead the campaign against the SNP in 2021.

“In the circumstances of the campaign, the key thing was that we maintained the share of the vote that he had. Six seats is… a platform for us to go into an election that is based on a proportional vote.

“Our share of the vote still is at a high in terms of where we were in 2016.

“I’m confident going into the campaign. I feel I’m tested, I’m energised, I’ve got the experience and I’m ready to lead a team into that campaign.”

The Eastwood MSP also repeated his plan for a sweeping overhaul of Scottish Tory policies.

He said all policies would be examined to see if they were “still fair and appropriate” and would “pass the blue collar test”, meaning would they help the aspirational.

He also said he wanted to introduce a second Scottish Tory party conference, holding one in the autumn as well as the spring.

His plan would be for gatherings in May and November this year, then March 2021.

He is being challenged by Michelle Balllantyne, the party’s social security spokeswoman.

The South of Scotland MSP was an early supporter of Brexit and Boris Johnson, whereas Mr Carlaw has been a late convert to both.