NICOLA Sturgeon has launched a withering attack on her likely opponent at the next Holyrood election, accusing Jackson Carlaw of putting his personal ambitions before his country and party in order to suck up to Boris Johnson.

The First Minister said the Eastwood MSP had changed from enthusiastic Remainer to no-deal Brexiteer in “a heartbeat” as he tried to become his party’s full-time leader.

“Shame on him for that,” she said.

Mr Carlaw, who represents one of the most Remain constituencies in the UK, has previously warned against a no-deal in case it imperilled the Union.

It was a position he shared with previous Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, who quit in August citing a “conflict” over Brexit after Mr Johnson said he was ready for a no-deal Brexit.

However at the Tory conference in Manchester this week, Mr Carlaw flipped his position and swung the Scottish Tories behind accepting no-deal, despite only being an interim leader.

He said: “After three years after an extension with everybody saying enough is enough; we need to move forward. I support the PM in everything he is doing and if we can’t get a deal by October 31 - and I hope we can - it’s time for us to go.”

The shift, made without consulting all his MSPs, left some in a “cold fury”.

At FMQs, Mr Carlaw said his party was ready to support the Prime Minister’s proposed deal, and asked Ms Sturgeon why her MPs were automatically opposed to it, when she said she was ready to compromise.

He said: “Further dither, delay and uncertainty, and the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister, to which this First Minister is disgracefully open, is much more damaging to us all than getting this sorted now.

“We are at the 11th hour, there is a need on all sides to compromise if we are going to reach a negotiated settlement, yet the record of this SNP Government has been to fail to do so. “The First Minister repeatedly says she will do anything possible to stop no-deal, yet despite three opportunities this year, her MPs haven’t ever voted for a deal.

“Does she regret not ordering her MPs to vote for a deal when she had the chance?”

The FM replied: “My alternative to no-deal is no Brexit, that’s what the people of Scotland voted for. All of the efforts at compromise to keep us in the single market and customs union were spurned and cast aside by Theresa May. I will not support an option which takes us not just out of the EU, but out of the single market and customs union.”

She went on: “Jackson Carlaw has no credibility on this, or perhaps on anything else after the events of this week. He’s gone from being an enthusiastic Remainer to a Boris Johnson-loving, no-deal Brexiteer in what seems like a heartbeat.

“He has completely abandoned the interests of the Scottish people - shame on him for that. No wonder his colleagues now want to get rid of him.”

Mr Carlaw said: “The real shame is a First Minister who is prepared to conspire to make Jeremy Corbyn the Prime Minister of this country.”

Ms Sturgeon said Mr Carlaw’s position was “simply doing whatever Boris Johnson instructs him to do”.

She said: “He doesn’t care about the best interests of the Scottish people. I’m not even sure he cares about the best interests of the Scottish Conservative Party, because backing no-deal is certainly not in those interests.

“I think Jackson Carlaw has made the miscalculation that backing Boris Johnson is the best way to remain leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, but I have to say, his colleagues seem to have a completely different view of that.

“Jackson Carlaw has squandered any shred of credibility he ever had.”

Mr Carlaw said Ms Sturgeon was not interested in an orderly UK exit from the EU, merely a “neverendum on Brexit, much like the one she pursues on independence.”

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard raised concerns about NHS Tayside wanting to centralise mental health services despite an independent expert recommending it should not.

Mr Leonard said Dr David Strang’s interim report had one recommendation - no centralisation before a full review of mental health service strategy - yet the health board was proposing to ignore it.

Dr Strang’s report was prompted by a campaign by relatives of David Ramsay, who killed himself in 2016 after twice being turned away from the Carseview Centre in Dundee.

Mr Leonard quoted Dr Strang’s reaction to the health board’s plan: “It is disappointing. This was the only recommendation in the whole report, because I thought it was urgently needed.”

Mr Leonard also quoted Mr Ramsay’s niece, Gillian Murray, who led the campaign after his death: “NHS Tayside refuse to listen, they refuse to change, they are being allowed to carry on: business as usual ... things are getting worse at NHS Tayside, not better.”

He asked Ms Sturgeon to intervene “before more time is wasted, before more families are made to suffer and before more lives are needlessly lost”.

She said: “I expect health boards to properly take account of such recommendations in the decision-making processes that they are required to undertake. I will certainly consider carefully the points that Richard Leonard has made.

“I take the opportunity, again, to put on record my condolences to David Ramsay’s family and to anyone else whose loved one has lost their life to suicide.

“The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport would be very willing to meet David Ramsay’s family, if that would be of interest, to hear at first hand their concerns about the ongoing situation at NHS Tayside.

“It is important that we listen to the lived experience of patients and patients’ relatives, and we will continue to do that in good faith and in all sincerity.”