BORIS Johnson has a commanding lead over Jeremy Hunt in the battle to become Conservative leader and prime minister.

That’s despite an incident last week in which police were called to the home Johnson shares with his partner.

According to a poll of 1279 Tory members, published yesterday, some 66% said they are backing the former London mayor, while just 30% are supporting his rival. The remaining 4% are undecided.

The survey was carried out by the website Conservative Home earlier this week, days after reports of a late-night row between Johnson and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds at their London flat, where neighbours alerted police.

According to Conservative Home, Hunt will be on a “mission” to close Johnson’s 36-point lead.

“It looks as though for him to do so will be a challenge too far. None the less, he is performing significantly better than he did when our last Hunt-Johnson run-off was held earlier this month,” it said.

“That time round, the score was Johnson 68%, Hunt 25%. The month before, it was Johnson 61%, Hunt 33% – much as now.”

It added: “The Foreign Secretary is in it to win it, but if he can get up to 40% of the vote, we think he will have done very well indeed.”

Hunt’s campaign was given a boost by the endorsement of Ruth Davidson and 18 Scottish Tory MSPs earlier this week. It is understood the 11 other Tory MSPs have yet to decide who they will back.

Davidson’s support followed a poll last weekend which suggested support for independence would increase to 53% if Johnson becomes prime minister. It also came after visit by Hunt to the north-east of Scotland last weekend where he was asked that given the choice between the Union and Brexit what would he choose. He replied: “The Union every time.”

READ MORE: Majority of Scottish Tory MSPs back Jeremy Hunt for PM

Johnson is regarded as a toxic figure in Scotland, having previously made a number of controversial statements about Scots. They include that “government by a Scot is just not conceivable in the current constitutional context” and that Scotland is full of “rotten boroughs”.

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Controversy has also emerged over the publication of a poem in The Spectator when Johnson was editor in 2004 which stated “the Scottish people are a verminous race that should be placed in ghettoes and exterminated”. It also described Scots as “Tartan dwarves”.

READ MORE: Fact-check: Did Boris Johnson call Scottish people a 'verminous race'?

Johnson’s campaign also got off to a poor start in Scotland when he pledged he would cut income tax for those earning between £50,000 and £80,000 – a policy which would not apply in Scotland as income tax is devolved and would need to be paid for by Scots through higher National Insurance contributions.

His determination to keep a no-deal Brexit as an option also suggests he has given little attention to Scots, the majority who want to stay in the EU.

The former Scottish Tory MEP Struan Stevenson, who is backing Hunt, believes the Foreign Secretary could yet win.

“Nineteen MSPs are backing Hunt as he is absolute in his support for the Union. Contrast that with Boris Johnson’s statement in the past that no Scot should be prime minister. There is a suggestion Johnson is playing to the English vote.

“Even his tax proposals would have a detrimental impact on Scotland.”

Meanwhile, Johnson’s claims about the prospects of rewriting the Brexit deal have been compared by the European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator to the “false promises, pseudo-

patriotism and foreigner-bashing” he is said to have used to win the EU referendum. In a withering assessment of the race between Johnson and Hunt, who also claims he will be able to renegotiate the deal, Guy Verhofstadt said it appeared they had “learned nothing whatsoever”.