During an interview with Express.co.uk prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Jackson Carlaw labelled Ms Sturgeon the most polarising figure in Scottish politics. Mr Carlaw also blasted the SNP as morally and politically bankrupt. 

The Scottish Conservative Party leader said: “Nicola Sturgeon has now become the most polarising figure in Scottish politics.

“She is equally the most popular and most unpopular politician at the same time.

“I think she has had her time.

“She will be going into next year’s elections leading a morally and politically bankrupt administration failing on all levels of public service with no new policy initiatives to offer.”

READ MORE: Sturgeon’s plan B torn apart by Carlaw as independence dream crumbles

Mr Carlaw added: “I do think that the SNP have had a fair chance.

“They have been in Government a long time and their only response is old fashioned socialist remedies that have failed the country so many times in the past or to try and divert all that discussion away back onto constitutional politics.

“The rest of the UK has moved on from constitutional politics now.

“We need to do the same.”

“People are going to vote with their feet and set up those businesses and take the most talented people to other parts of the United Kingdom.

“Scotland is in danger of getting left behind with Nicola Sturgeon.”

While Mr Carlaw has been a vocal critic of the record of the SNP in government, he has vowed to stand by the First Minister through-out the COVID-19 crisis.

He said in the Scottish Parliament earlier this month: “Scottish Conservatives will stand with the First Minister, and assure her, that the questions we will ask will be measured and entirely designed to inform and not hinder the national effort she is leading.”

He added: “We are, as both the Prime Minister and the First Minister have said, all in this together, and this party in this parliament will stand together with the Scottish Government.”