The Scottish Conservatives have revealed they will put "Ruth Davidson for a strong opposition" on the ballot paper for the regional list vote in May's Holyrood election.

The Tories have set their sights on becoming the official opposition in the Scottish Parliament after May as Kezia Dugdale's party struggles to regain support.

But while one poll last month put the Scottish Conservatives narrowly ahead of Labour, the party has since dropped back to third place.

Explaining the strategy, Ms Davidson said: "We know that the SNP have registered four different designations, all of which have Nicola's name in them, and they're clearly wanting to make this a presidential-style of election.

"I'm saying to people out there, not only will our party stand up against a second referendum, stand up to protect your pay cheque, stand up to really put the Scottish Government under pressure, but I will go toe to toe with Nicola Sturgeon and I will be your voice in the Scottish Parliament."

She added: "I'm ambitious for the party. Almost everyone would agree that we're headed to our best ever result in the Scottish Parliament, more votes and more seats than ever before.

"Almost everyone can agree that the Labour Party in Scotland is about to have its worst ever result in a Scottish parliamentary election, their lowest number of MSPs, and we can overtake them."

On Sunday, Ms Davidson insisted she will stay on as Scottish Conservative leader if the party does not succeed in beating Labour into second place.

Asked whether she would stay on if her target of second place was not achieved, Ms Davidson told the BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland programme: "Absolutely. I'm the leader of this party until the members of this party wish me to no longer be the leader.

"You saw at the conference on Friday that I've got a united team behind me, we're going into this election with our tails up, we know exactly what we're trying to do.

"We've set the bar high - our best ever result across Scotland, we're on course to hit it."