The Conservatives will appeal to Scottish voters at the next general election by telling them the Tories offer the only chance of a new UK government, the shadow Scotland secretary has said.

In an interview with the ePolitix.com website published on Friday, David Mundell said that May's victory for the Scottish National Party was an anti-Labour vote that could be replicated in UK-wide elections.

"People wanted rid of the tired Labour-led executive and they wanted change from Labour," he said.

"Now on that occasion they saw the SNP as the largest other party in the Scottish Parliament as the vehicle for that change, but when it comes to the UK general election the only way to change the UK government is to vote Conservative, and that is the message that we will be promulgating between now and the general election."

Mundell, the party's only MP in Scotland, said he expected former chancellor Ken Clarke's report into the so-called 'West Lothian question' early in 2008.

But he denied it would propose "banning" Scottish MPs from voting on some issues in the Commons.

"I think it's the wrong way round to say banning Scottish MPs from voting as it is sometimes characterised, it's actually about giving MPs from England the final say on matters which relate only to England which if there were in Scotland would be dealt with by the Scottish Parliament," he said, adding that the Tories wanted to address "the final part of the jigsaw" of devolution.

He said the party would use 2008 to focus on ensuring that the UK government and Scottish government could work together effectively following Labour's defeat at Holyrood in May.

"We had eight years where we had Labour in Edinburgh and Labour in London and everything was really done through Labour Party networks, and they don't exist anymore for that purpose," he went on.

"So we've got to see a maturing of the relationship between Edinburgh and London and we've got to look at ways of doing that which ensures that every issue isn't politicised."

Mundell accused first minister Alex Salmond of politicising the recent outbreaks of foot and mouth disease, but said he believed a Conservative-led government at Westminster could work with the SNP at Holyrood.