Visiting Edinburgh for the first time as UK prime minister,
Boris Johnson was met by a booing
crowd of Scottish independence supporters.
Mr Johnson has doubters across Scotland's political spectrum.
Many members of his own Scottish Conservative and Unionist party
fear that his unpopularity north of the border
and his apparent willingness to leave the EU without a deal
could prove disastrous for the unity of the United Kingdom.
Leaving the EU on any terms is unpopular in Scotland,
which in 2016 voted by 62 per cent to 38 per cent to Remain.
Nicola Sturgeon, first minister and leader
of the Scottish National party says that a no-deal Brexit
could plunge the country into recession
and cost 100,000 Scottish jobs.
That kind of economic damage, created by a leader
that many Scots see as an upper class Englishman
unsympathetic to their interests,
would be likely to boost support for Scottish independence.
Amid such worries, Ruth Davidson,
the Scottish Conservative leader,
has publicly set herself against Mr Johnson and no-deal,
saying that she could not support leaving
the EU without an agreement.
Ms Davidson and the new prime minister made a show of unity
during his visit, but the obvious differences
between them could be a major handicap
for the party in an early UK general election.
And any loss of the party's 13 Scottish seats
would make it much harder to win an overall UK majority
and would embolden the pro-independence S&P.
After his meeting with Ms Sturgeon,
Mr Johnson was able to avoid the booing crowds
by the highly unusual method of leaving the first minister's
official residence by the back door.
But the political and constitutional tensions
created by his Brexit policies could prove harder to escape.