Ruth Davidson will today make a direct appeal to Scottish Labour voters disillusioned with the party’s “civil war” to vote tactically for the Tories in the General Election to stop Nicola Sturgeon “trying to pull our country apart.”

Launching the Scottish Conservative manifesto alongside Theresa May, Ms Davidson is expected to sympathise with the predicament of moderate Labour supporters who do not like Jeremy Corbyn or Kezia Dugdale’s decision to suspend her Aberdeen council group.

The Scottish Tory leader will tell them “your party has left you” and it will not stage a comeback before the June 8, but her party can beat the SNP “in great swathes of the country” with their votes.

Asking Labour supporters to “let me do a job for you”, she will emphasise that her party is “rooted to the centre ground” by emphasising its commitment to workers’ rights and argue that the Tories can “lead the fightback against the SNP.”

Her wooing of Labour voters will come after Ms Dugdale was yesterday forced to deny her leadership was in crisis over the suspension of nine Aberdeen councillors who defied her orders to enter a coalition with the Tories.

The Scottish Labour leader rejected Ms Davidson’s accusation that she would rather do deals with the Nationalists than work with pro-Union parties. However, Ms Sturgeon said that Scottish Labour was in “disarray” and “meltdown”.