A SCOTTISH Tory has described his colleagues as “arseholes” after details of a plot to kibosh Boris Johnson's leadership ambitions came to light.

Aberdeen South MP and Johnson loyalist Ross Thomson took to Twitter last night to attack the plans reportedly being formed by Scottish Tories.

It was revealed yesterday that senior figures had launched a secret campaign, codenamed "Operation Arse", to stop Johnson replacing Theresa May.

READ MORE: What is Ross Thomson doing in Japan?

Internal polling shows that Johnson as Prime Minister would reverse Tory gains made at the last election, losing the party the 12 Westminster seats.

A senior party source told the Daily Record: "We called it that so we'd all be clear who we were talking about."

Brexiteer Thomson, who passionately chaperoned Johnson during the former mayor of London’s sell-out appearance at the party conference in Birmingham, praised the tousel-haired toff's address to the faithful.

“Regardless of your view of @BorisJohnson, today in his characteristic style he injected some much needed energy, optimism, passion and enthusiasm to a flat conference,” Thomson said.

“The reaction in the hall was electric which even those ‘Operation Arsehole’s [sic]’ can’t deny. #ChuckChequers #CPC18."

David Mundell was one of the few Scottish Tories to speak out publicly, warning that his former cabinet-colleague was “not an asset” to the party in Scotland.

The Scottish secretary said people were “concerned about Mr Johnson’s behaviour” and accused him of trying to create the “maximum amount of distraction and headlines for himself”.

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“I think what is a fact is that Mr Johnson is not an asset for the Scottish Conservative Party. I don’t think people find that his behaviour is one that would endear him to voters.

“We have a very, very strong leader in Scotland in Ruth Davidson who had a very significant contribution to make to this conference. Her message was to rally round the prime minister as we move forward with Brexit.”

Mundell added: “I don’t think this is a time to be talking about leadership challenges, it is a time to be supporting our prime minister as she takes forward this incredibly difficult task of getting a deal with the EU.”