RUTH Davidson’s big return to frontline politics saw her forced to defend her decision to take a job-for-life at the unelected House of Lords.

During a heated exchange at First Minister’s Questions, the soon-to-be Baroness insisted she was simply going to “another parliament.”

The former Scottish Tory leader is temporarily fronting the party’s group in Holyrood following the ousting of Jackson Carlaw, and the uncontested election of Douglas Ross as leader.

Though it was claimed at the time that Carlaw had chosen to stand down of his own accord, there have been claims of a plot.

Last week, this paper revealed that Davidson and Ross met just days before their colleague decided the top job wasn’t for him.

READ MORE: Is this Daily Mail article more proof Douglas Ross is a front for Ruth Davidson?

During Thursday’s First Minister’s Questions, Davidson challenged Nicola Sturgeon over John Swinney’s handling of last week’s exam results.

The deputy First Minister, the peer-in-waiting said, was not being held accountable.

Responding, Sturgeon said: “In a few months, I will submit myself and my government to the verdict of the Scottish people in an election.

“That is the ultimate accountability for our record and our leadership.

“And as we do that. Ruth Davidson will be pulling on an ermine and going to the unelected House of Lords.”

It wasn’t the SNP who were “running away from democratic accountability,” Sturgeon said.

A sheepish Davidson replied: “The former leaders of the Labour Party, The Scottish LibDems, the Scottish Conservative Party might want to go and serve in another Parliament, yes, and she thinks that that’s a bad thing”.

Sturgeon said she didn’t “criticise anybody for wanting to serve in any parliament”.

“I just have an old fashioned preference that they get elected,” she added.