FLASHBACK : RUTH DAVIDSON MSP is under pressure following revelations that Richard Cook, the former vice chairman of the Scottish Tories, facilitated a shadowy £425,000 Brexit donation to the DUP.

The Conservative MSP is under pressure following revelations that Richard Cook, the former vice chairman of the Scottish Tories, facilitated a shadowy £425,000 Brexit donation to the DUP.

He is the only known member of the Constitutional Research Council, an Unincorporated Association (UA) which funnelled the substantial donation to the DUP during the EU referendum.

That money was then used to buy adverts supporting the Brexit campaign throughout the whole of the UK, including a £280,000 four-page advert in the Metro, a newspaper not available in Northern Ireland.

BBC’s Spotlight revealed that the Metro advert was booked by Cook himself, and not, as the advert itself said, the DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Conservatives have received donations from similar UAs such as The Scottish Unionist Association Trust and the Irvine Unionist Club. These donations ranged in size from £20,000 to £130,000.