RUTH Davidson has defended Douglas Ross’s U-turn over Boris Johnson and partygate, saying her successor had been “put in a terrible position”.

Campaigning in the local elections in Edinburgh, she said: “As somebody who was a leader for eight years, I know what it’s like to have been dumped in it by colleagues down south.”

However, unlike Mr Ross, the Tory peer maintained that Mr Johnson ought to quit Downing Street over the scandal, saying he had “traduced” the office of Prime Minister.

Coming close to tears, she said the thing that got to her most were the people she knew who didn’t see dying loved ones because they stuck to the Covid rules and who now felt “that the Prime Minister and the culture in Number 10 makes a mockery of their sacrifice”.

Mr Ross’s political rivals have heaped scorn on him for refusing to demand Mr Johnson quit for breaking lockdown rules in Downing Street, resulting in a fine by the Metropolitan Police. 

Mr Johnson’s wife Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were also fined for attending a brief birthday party for the PM in 2020 in the Cabinet Room at Number 10.

Mr Ross, who initially called for Mr Johnson to resign over the scandal, later reversed his position after the war in Ukraine broke out, saying responding to it was more important.

He today called Mr Johnson a “truthful man”, but also said it was clear that his denials of wronging to the Commons had since proven incorrect and had to be explained.

Launching his party’s council manifesto this morning, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said Mr Ross was a “lightweight” with “the backbone of a jellyfish”.

Campaigning with Baroness Davidson in Edinburgh later, Mr Ross acknowledged the two of them had starkly different positions on Mr Johnson’s future.

He said: “Ruth still believes he should resign, I’ve taken a different view, with the situation in Ukraine. I am backing the UK Government response to that, and I think instability with a change of a leader right now would be the worst possible thing in terms of our efforts against the Russian aggression, and it would be the best possible thing for Vladimir Putin.”

However minutes later, Ms Davidson told the same press huddle the war in Ukraine was not an obstacle to Mr Johnson going through resignation or being voted out by Tory MPs.

She said: "I do understand and appreciate the international situation. I take it very seriously.

“However, for me, to have a Prime Minister that’s broken the law, laws that he set, to have presided over a culture in Number 10 where laws were repeatedly broken, and who told both the parliament and the public that no laws were broken when they were, for me that is a resignation offence.

“I have no issue with Douglas. I think Douglas has been put in a terrible position, probably the hardest position that any Scottish leader ever has been. And as somebody who was a leader for eight years, I know what it’s like to have been dumped in it by colleagues down south.

“I think Douglas was pretty gutsy to come out early to say this wasn’t on. I think that his leadership of the Scottish Conservatives is without doubt - and certainly electorally - the most successful we’ve ever had. 

“But he, like lots of the country, takes a world view wherein there is an international conflict happening right now on Europe’s doorstep and now is not the time to change prime ministers. I respect that view. It’s not a view that I hold.”

Suggesting Ukraine bolstered the case for the PM’s exit, she went on: “For me, when you’ve got a conflict, where it is about supporting a country that is fighting for democracy and freedom, you have to uphold some of the rules of democracy. And some of the rules of democracy arte that the Prime Minister leads by example and he or she follows the rules that they set, and that they speak to parliament in a way that they know to be truthful.” 

Asked if Chancellor Rishi Sunak should also resign given he too was fined for breaking the lockdown rules, Ms Davidson hinted he should, but was less emphatic than about the PM.

She said: “Who serves in the cabinet is up to only one person and that's up to the Prime Minister. That is entirely up to the Prime Minister.”

Pressed on whether Mr Sunak should go given he had “also broken the law”, she said: “Well, again, you know, my views on whether you should stay in office, when you've been breaking laws that you yourself have introduced and pushed through Parliament are pretty clear.”

She insisted she was not conflicted campaigning for a party ultimately “led by a criminal”.

She said: “Nobody is voting for Boris Johnson at this election, they’re voting for their local councillor, and I want there to be as many Conservative councillors as possible.”

Asked what got to her most about the situation, she said: “The thing that really gets me is how many people I know or have met or have spoken to me or I represented when I was still an MSP when COVID was going on, who didn't see loved ones, who stuck by the rules, who saw folks that they loved die or be ill, be alone, and who will never forgive themselves and they feel that the Prime Minister and the culture in Number 10 makes a mockery of their sacrifice.”