THE Tory leadership contest has, after approximately one million hours of hustings, been whittled down to two.

It’s a classic tale of two worlds colliding.

On one side there’s Jeremy Hunt, a posh middle-aged man who is in favour of harsh austerity measures, open to a no-deal Brexit and firmly opposed to Scottish independence.

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On the other there’s Boris Johnson, a slightly more clumsy posh middle-aged man who is in favour of harsh austerity measures, open to a no-deal Brexit and firmly opposed to Scottish independence.

It is, undeniably, a tough choice.

Asked for her opinion by BBC Newsnight, Nicola Sturgeon simply could not pick a favourite.

“With the greatest of respect that’s asking me if I’d prefer to be run down by a lorry or a bus,” she told Kirsty Wark.

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The First Minister added: “I think both of them, in different ways, would not be good for Scotland.

“I don’t think that any Tory prime minister who actually doesn’t have a mandate from Scotland is a good thing for Scotland.

“Now, that said, you I – and don’t take this as an endorsement of Jeremy Hunt because I don’t endorse Jeremy Hunt – but I look at Boris Johnson right now and I find it really difficult to get my head round how any rational person could seriously contemplate putting him into the highest political office in the UK.

“And the fact that the Tories appear very seriously to be contemplating doing that I think gives you a sense of how out of kilter the whole UK political system has become and how out of touch the Tories are with mainstream opinion in Scotland.”