The National:

IT doesn’t take a polling expert to tell you that Boris Johnson isn’t exactly flavour of the month in Scotland.

Those of us in the “verminous race” have never really fallen for his Tory toff charm.

For whatever reason, us “free-riders” don’t always see the funny side of bumbling Boris.

Never more so has that been true than this week, when it was reported the Prime Minister shouted he’d rather “bodies pile high in their thousands” than order a third lockdown. Charming.

No 10 denies that such a comment was made, but it says much for Johnson’s standing in Scotland that many considered the report believable.

His unpopularity here was highlighted in an ITV News special report on the Holyrood election. The segment included a focus group of first-time voters, which polls suggest are heavily pro-independence and heavily anti-Tory.

WATCH: Douglas Ross point blank refuses to say Boris Johnson is honest

In the most telling part of the interview, the school pupils were asked who they had been “most impressed” with during the pandemic – Boris Johnson or Nicola Sturgeon.

All of the participants raised a hand for the First Minister, but none of them raised a hand for the Prime Minister.

It’s a neat illustration of the problems facing the Tory government in Scotland – they’re only getting more unpopular.

Boris Johnson may not have got a hand from any of the first-time voters, but Scots may well give him a hand in the future for his vital role in convincing people to vote Yes.