The new Scottish Secretary has insisted his job is vital to driving through more devolution for Holyrood.
David Mundell defended his role after former first minister Alex Salmond called for it to be abolished in his exclusive Courier column.
But the sole Conservative MP north of the border hit back, insisting he would be the force behind making sure the cross-party Smith Commission agreement is enacted at Westminster.
He said: “There’s an important role for the Scotland Office to play in taking forward this significant change to the powers for the Scottish Parliament.
“This will be one of the most important pieces of legislation to come before parliament this session and the Scotland Office will be the driving force to delivering that.
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“There is an extremely important role to play. The SNP don’t believe in the Scotland Office as they don’t believe in the UK Government.”
Mr Mundell also insisted he wanted to have a constructive relationship with SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon as he indicated he would be prepared to listen to Nationalist suggestions on devolution.
The Prime Minister carried out a reshuffle which mainly tinkered around the edges after positions were freed up by the Liberal Democrats no longer being in government.
George Osborne, Ian Duncan Smith, Liz Truss and Jeremy Hunt retained their roles as Chancellor, work and pensions, education and health secretaries respectively. Michael Fallon remains defence secretary while Philip Hammond stays on as foreign secretary.
Michael Gove was promoted to justice secretary, Sajid Javid moves to business secretary from the culture brief, where he was replaced by veteran John Whittingdale, while Amber Rudd was appointed energy and climate change secretary.
Boris Johnson will be a member of the political Cabinet but not a minister as he serves his final term as London mayor.