Why Rishi Sunak has broken from his predecessors during first visit to Scotland

On Thursday night, he had a working dinner with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at the Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness, where the pair are said to have had “robust” exchanges on independence, as well as discussing the NHS and Scotland’s controversial gender recognition legislation.

It’s fair to say they probably didn’t see eye-to-eye on many issues. But the fact a meeting took place at all – and on Number 10’s instigation – says something. Liz Truss, in Downing Street for a matter of weeks, famously dismissed Ms Sturgeon as an attention seeker who was best ignored.

The relationship between Mr Sunak and Ms Sturgeon also seems more constructive than that between the First Minister and Boris Johnson.

The latter certainly made more time for the media, however. Mr Johnson’s trips to Scotland were always colourful and slightly surreal. On one memorable occasion, he talked of still yearning to believe in the Loch Ness monster. As a former hack, he couldn’t help but put on a performance. Not so much with Mr Sunak.

Newspapers were invited to a press conference in Invergordon on the Cromarty Firth on Friday morning. After a seven-hour round trip from Edinburgh, they were given just under 13 minutes with the Prime Minister, despite being promised 20.

Mr Sunak took questions from six journalists out of around a dozen, and his answers were extremely careful.

The Scotsman wasn’t one of the chosen few, but squeezed in a question at the end as the Prime Minister tried to leave, to the irritation of his officials. Did Ms Sturgeon bring up her de-facto referendum plans during their dinner? "I think she talked a little bit about it last night,” he said.

Confusingly, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, who was sitting beside Mr Sunak, added: "It was actually one of her staff who brought up the subject last night, but we didn't discuss de-facto referendums.” Perhaps if Mr Sunak had hung around, we could have cleared things up, and much else besides.