Ruth Davidson yesterday told farming leaders it would be “foolhardy” to give MSPs the power to create an entirely separate Scottish replacement for the EU’s controversial Common Agricultural Policy after Brexit.

The Scottish Tory leader said she expected “an almighty political row” over the coming months over whether Westminster or Holyrood runs agriculture after powers are repatriated from Brussels.

She argued it would be wrong to create barriers within the UK domestic market – the destination of 85 per cent of Scotland’s ‘agri-exports’ - by having different systems on both sides of the Border.

However, she insisted it was not a “binary choice” and the Scottish Parliament could have some flexibility, in the same way that MSPs are gaining control over some social security benefits.

Ms Davidson concluded that it was “surely possible” to design a better system for distributing farming subsidies than the Common Agricultural Policy, which she said attempted to cater for farmers on the shores of the Mediterranean and the fringes of the Arctic Circle.

Speaking at NFU Scotland’s annual general meeting, she also said the UK’s immigration system after Brexit must take account of farmers’ demand for migrant workers but rejected calls for Scotland to have a separate regime.