RUTH Davidson has said she will continue to criticise Boris Johnson in office if he merits it, admitting she has "personal concerns" about what kind of Prime Minister he will be.

In a strikingly lukewarm response to his promotion, the Scottish Conservative leader said she would judge Mr Johnson on his record in Number 10, not his rhetoric.

Unconvinced by his plans despite “several” recent conversations with him, she said: “Warm words aren’t going to be enough. We need to see some actions.”

She said: “I’ve been a critic of Boris Johnson when our ideas have differed and when I thought he had merited it, and I will continue to be so."

She added: “There is no job like Prime Minister. There’s nothing that can prepare you for it. I’ve been lucky enough to see it up close. We’ll see what he makes of it. He’s going to have to make a pretty good fist of it pretty early because of the challenges that he’s facing.”

Ms Davidson, who backed three of Mr Johnson’s rivals for the Tory leadership, also told BBC Scotland she did not agree with his embrace of a no-deal Brexit.

However she rejected SNP claims that Mr Johnson would boost independence, saying the future of the Union would not be decided “by the personalities of the day”.

“People understand that the constitutional future of our country is a much more long-term decision,” she said.

Ms Davidson, who chose to be on holiday the day of the Tory leadership result, has never hidden her disdain for Mr Johnson, banning him from the recent Scottish Tory conference.

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She accused him of misleading voters in the 2016 EU referendum in which she advocated Remain, while he championed Leave.

Ms Davidson said she now wanted to “ensure” Mr Johnson delivered for Scotland within the Union, including support for Scottish industries in his administration’s first budget.

She told the BBC: “It’s no news to anybody that I didn’t vote for him, but he won fair and square and now he’s got an enormous task ahead of him, and I hope he appoints a good team to help him with that task.”

She said she wanted Mr Johnson to get a new Brexit deal in the “very small window” before October 31 and so avoid his “do or die” vow to leave by then, even if it meant no-deal.

She said: “I don’t agree with a no-deal Brexit. I campaigned for Remain.

“I understand that Leave won and there is a mandate there for that, but I don’t believe that there is necessarily a mandate for a no-deal Brexit. That’s not what anybody was arguing for that I argued against way back in 2016. I don’t agree with it and I don’t support it.”

She went on: “I’ve been a critic of Boris Johnson when our ideas have differed and when I thought he had merited it, and I will continue to be so.

“However, he’s Prime Minister, he’s won it fair and square, and I think most fair-minded Scots across the country will judge his premiership by his actions in office, as I will.”

“I think he needs to deliver. There is a scepticism, not just in Scotland but across the whole country about what kind of Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be. We’ll only know that once he’s in office, but warm words aren’t going to be enough. We need to see some actions.”

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Asked if she had "personal concerns" about the PM-elect, she said: “I’ve been perfectly open and honest with him and with the country. He wasn’t my choice for leader. I didn’t vote for him. However, I will judge his premiership by his actions in office, as will everybody across the country, whether they’re parliamentary colleagues, whether they’re voters, whether they’re opponents.”

She said Scots were too canny to believe Nicola Sturgeon’s assertion that Mr Johnson - like previous claims about Brexit and Theresa May - would boost independence.

She said: “People understand that a 300-year-old Union isn’t decided by the personalities of the day. Whether that’s Alex Salmond, who was a Marmite politician, whether that’s Boris Johnson, who arguably some people could say the same.

“I think people understand that the constitutional future of our country is a much more long-term decision. There is no majority for a second Indyref in Scotland. I hope Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t try to push that button again, although she’s tried several times in the last five years, because I think that we have serious problems in Scotland to sort out.”

She also said Mr Johnson would do well to keep David Mundell as Scottish Secretary.

She said: “David Mundell has a wealth of experience, we have a fantastic working relationship. I think the new Prime Minister would do well to take his advice on Scotland.

“He knows the Scottish Government inside out. He has sat across the table from Nicola Sturgeon and looked her in the eye many times. I think that experience will be invaluable to the new Prime Minister.

“If the Prime Minister chose to keep on David Mundell I would be very happy with that. “