Ruth Davidson has hinted she plans to ditch Holyrood for Westminster and accused SNP MPs of deliberately trying to irritate English voters.
The Scottish Conservative leader will tell the party’s conference in Birmingham that Nicola Sturgeon “does not speak for the country” by putting a second independence referendum on the table as she provides the warm up act for Prime Minister Theresa May’s keynote speech on Wednesday.
And she will urge other parts of Britain not to believe SNP assertions that Scottish independence is “inevitable”.
Ms Davidson will say: “You see Nicola Sturgeon on the TV most weeks telling you how Scotland is up in arms – again…threatening break-up.
“Asserting independence is closer now than ever before. Declaring separation is somehow inevitable.
“Today, speaking to people here across the UK, I want to make this clear. Don’t believe a word of it.
“There is nothing inevitable about the break-up of this great nation and I for one will fight it every inch and so will thousands with me.
“The SNP doesn’t speak for all of Scotland. And nor does it have the right to.”
Commentators and politicians have speculated about the possibility of Ms Davidson, who is extremely popular with UK Conservative members, taking a seat in the House of Commons.
Given her recent success in the Holyrood elections, some have suggested she would become a member of the Cabinet were she to make the switch.
She refused to rule out such a move when asked about it at a fringe event on Tuesday, only saying it would be “some time” before the situation could arise.
She said: “As delighted as I am, as I did before, to have a standing invite to political cabinet, I will be staying out of Her Majesty’s Government’s Cabinet for some time because I have a job to do.”
SNP MPs threatened to defeat the UK Government on fox hunting at Westminster, causing the Tories to shelve the vote, even though the issue does not apply in Scotland.
Ms Davidson claimed they were doing it to “annoy people” and “get up the nose of people in England”.
She added: “It is absolutely incumbent on the SNP and their 56, 55, 54, 53, however many MPs they have, to get in the UK papers and get on the UK television and get in the homes of people in England and Wales just to annoy you so you say: ‘Scots, please won’t you leave.’
“That is what they are building to…it is absolutely cynical.”
An SNP spokesman said: “Tory attempts to shut down debate, with Theresa May and Ruth Davidson going out of their way to say Scotland’s voice and interests don’t matter, signal an utterly bizarre approach from a party who claim they want to keep the UK together.
“Nicola Sturgeon was elected First Minister, and so has every right to speak for Scotland in negotiating a secure future for our country in the wake of the Tories’ Brexit shambles.”
