BORIS Johnson's Government has sent its newly redecorated Union flag plane to support military aircraft in Scotland.
The SNP last month hit out at the Prime Minister after he controversially splashed out around £1 million on a vanity project which saw the Union flag sprayed onto the RAF Voyager.
The day before that the UK Government was refusing to provide free school meals to children over the summer holidays, a decision it U-turned on after pressure from campaigners including Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford.
READ MORE: SNP blast Boris Johnson's £1m Union flag plane paint job
The RAF Voyager joined the Quick Response Action (QRA) with jets from RAF Lossiemouth early on Friday morning.
A spokesman for the MoD confirmed the plane was involved in the call as Russian aircraft approached UK air space.
But no interception was required during the operation and the Voyager made a return to its base at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
An RAF spokesman said: "Typhoon fighters from RAF Lossiemouth were scrambled today in response to Russian military aircraft approaching the UK.
"However, the aircraft did not enter our area of interest and no intercept was made."
A Lossiemouth spokesman said the Voyagers can be tasked to "provide air-to-air refuelling or they can be tasked to transport personnel or freight".
The cost of the respray, confirmed by Downing Street at "around £900,000" and undertaken at an airport in Cambridgeshire, was condemned by opposition politicians when it was revealed last month.
The SNP criticised it as an "utterly unacceptable use of public funds".
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