Ms Davidson also signalled her opposition to Mrs May’s deal with the DUP in blunt fashion by tweeting a link to the same-sex marriage lecture she gave at Amnesty 's Pride lecture in Belfast last year.

She is engaged to Jen Wilson, an Irish Catholic Christian who campaigned during the Republic's same-sex marriage referendum, is a practising Christian herself and has said she would like to get married in a local church.

Her views could not be further from those of the DUP, a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage and supporter of the “traditional” definition of marriage. Last night, Ms Davidson said she had sought and received assurances from the Prime Minister that she would try to advance gay rights in Northern Ireland despite the DUP's record.

Ms Davidson flexed her political muscle following a disastrous night for the SNP, which saw Alex Salmond lose his seat. Nicola Sturgeon hinted that she will row back on her plan for a second independence referendum but Ms Davidson demanded she “give Scotland a break” by immediately taking the plan off the table.

The Nationalists ended up with 35 seats, the Tories 13, Labour seven and the Liberal Democrats four. But this compares with the 56 seats the Nationalists won in 2015, when the other three parties held on to only one constituency each.