SCOTTISH Tory MP Ross Thomson has announced that he is backing Boris Johnson in the Tory leadership race.

In a post on his website, Thomson compared claims that Johnson is unpopular in Scotland to the Loch Ness monster.

The Aberdeen South MP said he "genuinely believed" that Johnson in Downing Street would see Ruth Davidson becoming First Minister of Scotland.

The Scottish Tories previously launched a campaign nicknamed "Operation Arse", which was a bid to prevent Johnson becoming Prime Minister out of fear of how it would impact on the party's popularity in Scotland.

Davidson has backed Sajid Javid in the leadership contest.

On his website, Thomson writes: "There is a political narrative that’s being perpetuated in Scotland by the twitterati and the chattering classes that Boris isn’t quite right in Scotland or is just plain unpopular. It’s nonsense. Much like the mythical Loch Ness monster – heard about often but wanting in hard evidence.

"The same people said the same thing when he ran for Mayor of London “a Labour city”.  The same people said the Conservative and Unionist Party would never recover in Scotland (Pandas come to mind) – ask Alec [sic] Salmond how that went. Or that along the Clyde you weighed the Labour vote. The same people told me Aberdeen South never would elect a gay MP and that the Conservative and Unionist Party in Scotland would never back a working-class lesbian. They were wrong."

On the impact of Johnson in Downing Street, he adds: "We all know that Nicola Sturgeon will weaponise anything and anyone to make her argument for Independence. It’s no surprise that she has said that Boris Johnson would be yet another justification.

"Maybe, this says more about Boris’s ability to appeal to the voters in Scotland whilst her own appeal continues to decline and diminish as the SNP’s record shows them for what they are.

"Naturally the idea of a strong, decisive, unifying and direct character in Downing Street must terrify her and her pals in the SNP."

Thomson also cited Johnson's opposition to another independence referendum as a reason for lending him his support.

He says: "With Boris’s commitment to our Union, to freeing us from the dreaded CAP and CFP, to promoting our iconic whisky industry, to ensuring that we are able to attract workers we need, to taking on the SNP head on and ruling out another independence referendum – I genuinely believe that with Boris in Downing Street we can get Ruth Davidson into Bute House and increase the number MPs at the next election."