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The mark of true leadership is the ability to show moral courage when it is most needed.

Kezia Dugdale passed that test with flying colours yesterday.

Ruth Davidson failed it – miserably.

In the years to come, both women may look back on the rape clause debate as a defining moment in their political careers.

For Dugdale, who stunned the chamber to silence while reading a letter from a mum who had conceived a child through rape, it was a powerful demonstration of the principled politics she represents.

For Davidson, it was a moment of enduring shame that proved she is willing to defend the indefensible.

There is no justification for the two-child tax credit cap or the sickening rape clause.

It’s a policy born out of the Conservatives’ ideological hatred for the poor and implemented with a callous disregard of the consequences.

More children will be plunged into poverty because of it. Women who have already suffered unimaginable horrors will be forced to endure yet more pain.

SNP MP Alison Thewliss has been campaigning brilliantly on the issue for months and Nicola Sturgeon rightly ensured Holyrood also got to have its say.

It almost feels unseemly to use such a human tragedy to make a point about the upcoming general election.

But it is only because the Tories won in 2015 that they are in the position to implement such a despicable policy.

(Image: PA)

So we make no apology for spelling out once again exactly what a Tory victory will mean on June 8.

Many decent unionists are considering voting Tory because they are sick and tired of the SNP’s constitutional obsession.

They want to send Sturgeon a message and have concluded lending the Tories their vote is the best way to do it.

That’s understandable – but the reality is any vote for the Conservatives on June 8 is a vote for the rape clause, too.

Ruth Davidson is perfectly happy with that. Are you?