An SNP MP has mocked Liz Truss after she failed to win the support of more than half of eligible voters in the Tory leadership contest.
The Foreign Secretary received 57 per cent of the total votes cast by members of the Conservative party across the country.
But when turnout is taken into consideration less than half the Tory membership chose to vote for Truss - while a greater number of Conservative MPs backed Rishi Sunak.
Boris Johnson’s victory in the same contest in 2019 was far more decisive, picking up 66 per cent of votes compared to Jeremy Hunt’s 34 per cent
It comes after Nicola Sturgeon accused Truss of being prepared to "move the goalposts" on IndyRef2 amid reports the new PM will consider changing the rules on how to run a future vote.
Under the proposals a referendum would require evidence for more than a year that at least 60 per cent of voters in Scotland want a new vote.
Crucially, if ministers agreed to allow a vote to go ahead, at least 50 per cent of all of Scotland's electorate would be required to vote to leave the union rather than just a majority.
Veteran Nationalist Pete Wishart said if the same rules were applied to the Tory leadership election neither Truss nor Sunak would have won.
The Perth MP said: "The fact Liz Truss failed to win the support of 50 per cent of eligible Conservative party members shows just how absurd and undemocratic Tory proposals to rig the rules of an independence referendum are - and it leaves the Tory government with egg all over its face.
"If the same rules were applied to the Tory leadership election, neither candidate would have won, the vote would be null and void, and it would have to be re-run all over again.
"Westminster attempts to deny democracy and rewrite the rules are doomed to fail and will only backfire, increasing support for independence even further."
At Monday’s announcement, it emerged there are 172,437 Tory members who were eligible to vote in the contest and that 82.6 per cent. chose to take part.
Truss received 81,326 votes, meaning that 47 per cent of those who could have cast a vote in her favour chose to do so.
In 2019, Mr Johnson won 58 per cent of the eligible membership’s support on a turnout of 87.4 per cent.
Truss’s victory also means this is the first Tory leadership contest since 2001 that the candidate with the most votes among MPs has not won the most votes among party members.
Sunak led his rival candidates in every round of voting among MPs and ended up with 137 votes in the final ballot, ahead of Truss on 113 and Penny Mordaunt, who was eliminated from the contest, on 105.
Boris Johnson and David Cameron both won the most votes among MPs and the party at large.
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