The National:

THE Scottish Tories found themselves in a spot of hot water earlier this week when it emerged they would be putting Ruth Davidson's face on their campaign branding - despite her having stepped down as leader back in August. 

The SNP said the move was "duplicitous", but of course the Tories have done their best to explain it all away ...

Interviewed by BBC journalist Kirsty Wark last night, the former Scottish secretary was asked about his party's strategy now Davidson has gone.

"You’re going into this election minus your biggest asset," Wark put to him.

READ MORE: Ruth Davidson still the face of Scottish Tory election campaign

Mundell replied: "I don’t accept that – I mean Ruth Davidson was a transformational leader of the Scottish Conservatives. And I’m sorry that she’s stepped down. But the message that Ruth took forward is the same message that we’re taking into this election: the Scottish Conservatives are the only party in Scotland who will stand up to the SNP, the only party who will say no to having another independence referendum. And that is vitally important to people across Scotland who in the 2014 independence referendum voted to stay in the United Kingdom."

Well, actually, the message isn't quite the same ... your former leader was pretty actively opposed to a No-Deal Brexit, but your interim chief Jackson Carlaw was pretty happy to back that plan as soon as he got in the driving seat ...

The journalist interjected him: "But hang on. Ruth Davidson is no longer your leader, but as far as I understand it her face is still on election leaflets?"

The MP responded: "And that’s because she’s still an active member and supporter of the Conservative Party."

Wark laughed as he made the claim.

Mundell went on: "The leader of the Labour Party at the last election isn’t even in the Labour Party anymore. Ruth wants to play a part as we go forward but she felt that she couldn’t balance her responsibilities as a mother with being the full-time leader of the Conservative Party. But she’s still going to play a role and that’s perfectly proper.”

READ MORE: Ruth Davidson drops PR role after public and industry backlash

Interesting stuff. 

Imagine if the UK Tories ran flyers with Theresa May's face on them? Or Labour tried some with Ed Milliband? Needless to say people would not be happy. 

We couldn't agree more with Kirsty.