Ruth Davidson: I was 'hopelessly conflicted' as Scots Tory leader

At the time, Ms Davidson said the decision was largely down to wishing to spend more time with her family.

"I've always put my job first and the role first and sometimes that means that my family, my wider family has suffered and now I'm making a different choice," she said.

"But part of it has also been that I've been hopelessly conflicted over Brexit. I campaigned for Remain, I believe in Remain. But I also believe that if you ask a question and say it's too big for politicians to make a decision and the country has to.

"When the country makes that decision, even if it isn't the decision I would have made, you've got to honour that.

"So I do support Brexit happening even if I didn't want it to happen and I still want to be part of a wider union.

"That conflict as well made it harder to be as good a leader, to be as clear-sighted a leader as I had previously been.

"I'm professionally proud, I want to do a good job and I wasn't performing at the level I had done before either. It wasn't all about one thing it was about a combination."

Ms Davidson had previously clashed with Boris Johnson, before he was Prime Minister, during the Brexit referendum and found herself relatively sidelined in the UK political picture when he became Prime Minister.