RUTH Davidson has deepened her rift with Boris Johnson by warning “millions” of struggling families cannot afford the economic shock of a no-deal Brexit.

With talks between the UK and EU stalled over the Prime Minister’s demand to remove the Irish backstop, the Scottish Tory leader appealed for all sides to “compromise”.

Ms Davidson’s warning came amid reports of Downing Street ramping up plans for no-deal on October 31, and EU diplomats concluding it was now Mr Johnson’s “central scenario”.

Cabinet office minister Michael Gove, who is in charge of no-deal preparations across government, blamed the other EU 27 nations for the lack of progress on a new deal.

He said he was “deeply saddened” the EU “seem to be refusing to negotiate with the UK”.

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Giving an interview on the Edinburgh Fringe, Ms Davidson was asked if a no-deal Brexit, which she recently said she could not support, could cost thousands of jobs.

She said: “Brexit itself has never been done by any country. Nobody has ever left the EU. “There are as many opinions about what Brexit itself, and a no-deal Brexit, would do in terms of an economic shock, or not, to the country.

“Nobody really knows, and nobody will ever know, until after something’s been done.

“My own view is that, particularly after the issues that we had in 2008 with the worldwide economic crash, there’s quite a lot of people that would really struggle, even if there was a very mild economic shock to the United Kingdom, even if it was only a short-term one.

“There are millions of people in this country who have no savings, whose wages haven’t kept up and overtaken inflation in the last 10 years, who live two or three weeks out of every month in their overdraft as it is, and actually can’t afford an economic shock to this country.

“That’s one of the reasons I’m urging people to get round the table and have a compromise and make sure we get a deal across the line.”

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Ms Davidson, whose relationship with Mr Johnson has been strained since she campaigned for Remain against the Leave figurehead in 2016, said little about their relationship, although she joked about going for a drink for him “as maybe that would sort it out”.

But she said would work with him to get a deal on Brexit and avoid crashing out the EU.

She said: “I think it is better for everyone if there is a deal. I think it’s better for us. I think it’s better for Northern Ireland, I think it’s better for the Republic of Ireland, and for the EU

“The stated position of the Prime Minister and the Government is that their preference is for a deal, but they [could] leave without one. I want to support the Prime Minister in getting that deal, and we’ve got a very small window. So fingers crossed we can get it over the line.”

Referring to news coverage about the UK and EU refusing to restart talks, she said: “Some of the stuff we’ve seen today is unhelpful, but there has always been, when it comes to EU negotiations, a bit of squaring up that happens. There’s always a bit of brinkmanship.

"I hope that what we’re seeing in the papers today is simply a precursor to further talks to get a deal.

“We are in a situation where politics is becoming more strident, and compromise is seen as a dirty word or a sell-out or whatever.

“Actually compromise is how you get stuff done, and I think I would encourage everybody to compromise, whether it’s the Prime Minister, the Government, or the EU itself.”

READ MORE: Ruth Davidson insists she will not support no-deal Brexit

Mr Davidson also criticised President Trump while Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is in North America trying to “fire up” UK-US trade relations in anticipation of Brexit.

Discussing the coarsening of political discourse and social media, she said: “If you look at Trump, talking about ‘lying CNN’. He says things that are demonstrably untrue.

“As in, there is actual factual evidence that what he has said is contrary to.

“If a big network like CNN reports it, his supporters just go, ‘Oh well, it’s lying CNN’ because he has told them they are liars.

“That kind of element to life really does coarsen the debate and allows people to say things that are untrue in a way that they never previously would have.”

Mr Davidson gave birth to her first child, Finn, last October.

She said motherhood was “joyous” but far harder and more tiring than she expected.

She also said she had been surprised at feeling a “rabid” desire to have children.

She said: “I love it. It was such a late bonus for us [Ms Davidson and her partner Jen Wilson]. It’s joyous and by the time I got pregnant I was rabid for a child.

“I’d always kind of thought I’d quite like a child at some point five years in the future but I’m very busy right now. Then I ran out five yearses and something suddenly clicked.

“I wanted children. I really wanted children. It was the oddest, oddest thing, and I didn’t expect it of myself. It is amazing but wish I’d done it at 25 not 40.”

READ MORE: No-deal Brexit split is forcing Scottish Conservatives to take sides

She said she “didn’t want to be gay" as a child, partly because of her faith.

But she said she still prayed and wanted her son to have a religious upbringing.

A former Sunday school teacher, Ms Davidson was brought up in the Church of Scotland. She said: “When I was coming out, over those couple of years, that was quite difficult.

“You read some of the things that are in Romans, where you’re compared to idolators, adulterers, and that is difficult. But I seem to always find my way back.

“We haven’t quite decided how we’re going to raise Finn in terms of his denominations and all the rest of it. But I would like him to at least be able to make an informed decision when he’s older. So I think between us we’ll both probably start, when he’s a bit older, maybe making sure that he goes to a Sunday school and learns his Bible stories.

“Quite apart your belief system, there’s quite important lessons contained in there - ways to treat other people that are important lessons for life.”

Asked if she prayed, she said: “I do pray. It’s not so much I go off in a room and kneel down or anything like that. It’s quiet words up sometimes.”

Asked if she might swap Holyrood for Westminster, she said her life was in Edinburgh and it would be terribly disruptive to work in London.

However she did not rule it out.