FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon has slammed Ruth Davidson's "meaningless" pronouncements on opposing a no-deal Brexit.

The leader of the Scottish Conservatives wrote a newspaper column in which she said she would refuse to back a no-deal​ Brexit, ahead of Johnson's first visit to Scotland as Prime Minister.

However, the Scottish First Minister cited Davidson's apparent change of heart about Brexit and leaving the single market and customs union and accused her of repeatedly falling into line with the UK Government's position.

Speaking after her meeting with Johnson in Edinburgh, Sturgeon said: "We've been here before – Ruth Davidson has made many bold, principled-sounding pronouncements and then quietly just fallen into line with the Westminster Tory Government.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon was having none of Boris Johnson's back-patting

"Ruth Davidson said she opposed Brexit and then fell into line. She said we should not be taken out of the single market and customs union – I firmly remember the first FMQs after the Brexit referendum when she challenged me to keep Scotland in the single market – and then she kind of dropped that and fell into line."

Suggesting that Davidson could instruct Scottish Tory MPs to block or vote against a no-deal Brexit, or resign if the UK left without a deal, Sturgeon added: "Unless she gives some substance to that pronouncement, then I'm afraid I just put it in the same category as her opposition to Brexit or her position to being taken out of the single market and customs union – meaningless."

Johnson met with Davidson at the Scottish Parliament, arriving to booing and shouts of "lying arsehole".

He promised he would be "doing everything I can to assist" Davidson to become Scotland's next first minister in the 2021 Holyrood election.

He hailed her as a "fantastic leader of Scottish Conservatives", adding: "I am lost in admiration at what she has achieved, I am a massive fan of the way she has taken the argument to those who would destroy our union."

Following her meeting with the Prime Minister at Holyrood, Davidson said: "We had an incredibly constructive meeting.

"We covered a number of areas, talking about Brexit, the need to make sure we can get a deal across the line, and I support the Prime Minister wholeheartedly in getting that deal.

"We talked about how we can continue to have the UK Government deliver in Scotland, for Scots, and how we can build on that delivery, and also how we can continue to take on Nicola Sturgeon and oppose her obsession with another independence referendum."

At his meeting at Bute House with the First Minister, Johnson told Sturgeon that there shouldn't be another Scottish independence referendum.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson leaves Bute House meeting by the back door

Speaking afterwards, the First Minister said: "We had a very lively discussion, we had a session where it was just the two of us in the room and then we were joined by our officials.

"In both of those sessions we had a very lively exchange of views about independence. I made clear my government's intentions to pass the framework Bill to allow a referendum to take place next year.

"He made the case that he was for the Union, and didn't think Scotland should have the right to choose. And we had a to-ing and fro-ing on the pros and cons of independence.

"At one point I suggested to him we didn't have the debate in Bute House, we took that debate out into the public and let the public decide.

"I even suggested we might debate it live on television - at which point his adviser said it was probably time that we left. We had a very robust exchange of views about that."

Asked whether Johnson seemed more willing to speak about the prospect of a second independence vote than Theresa May, Sturgeon said: "Time will tell. But the position she took, the position that he says he is taking, is not a sustainable position.

"If people in Scotland want to be independent then people in Scotland will find a way of making that view known."

Suggesting Johnson's opposition to another referendum was "anti-democratic", Sturgeon added: "It's not for me to decide whether Scotland becomes independent, it's not for him to decide it, it's for people to decide it "Even Margaret Thatcher used to concede that if a majority of people in Scotland wanted independence then Scotland would be independent.

"This idea that you can block, can argue against it, it's perfectly legitimate to make a case against independence, but the idea you can block it is not in line with the claim of right."

Asked about her back-up plan if Johnson continues to block another referendum, Sturgeon said she would "cross that bridge" if she got to it.