Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross alerted his wife to death threat while she was on duty as police officer

Scottish Tory chief Douglas Ross revealed he had to alert his wife to a death threat he was sent since she was on duty in her job as a police sergeant at the time.

The Conservative chief said he wanted to tell Krystle he had received a “credible” threat to his life so she was aware before details of it popped up on her work computer.

Speaking at his party’s Glasgow conference, Mr Ross said high-profile politicians are often bombarded with “extremely vicious” abuse online.

He said: “It’s amazing how people think they can put anything up there and it to be true because they have typed it in.

“These are words and phrases they would never say to you in person, they would never come up to you and say what they say on social media to your face.

“And I think some of the protection they feel behind the keyboard allows them to get away with far too much.”

On letting his wife know, he said: “One of the particular death threats I got in Moray was acted upon very quickly by our local chief inspector.

“I’ve got a process, all MPs and MSPs have a process they go through, when they get credible threats like that.

“Also I had to then phone Krystle, she was on duty at the time as a sergeant.

“This would come up on her computer screen that the local MP has a death threat against him, and she happens to be married to him.

“So I wanted to make sure she was aware of that before it started going through her system.”

Last year we revealed Mr Ross received more toxic insults on Twitter than any other Scottish MP.

The BBC found 1,548 abusive tweets were directed against the Tory chief over a six-week period.

First Minister Humza Yousaf condemned the abuse directed against his political rival.

He said: “I feel for family members of all politicians. I heard Douglas Ross speaking out about his own experiences.

“For example when it came to things being said about his wife and himself.

“I sympathise with every politician regardless of which political party they’re in, in terms of the abuse they and their family can get.

“It’s just simply not acceptable.”