David Mundell - credit: David Anderson

David Mundell will today call on Nicola Sturgeon to abandon any SNP plans for a second independence referendum "once and for all".

Speaking in Manchester, the Scottish Secretary is expected to use his speech to the Conservative Party conference to urge the First Minister to "take a fire extinguisher" to the policy.

He will say the general election - in which the SNP lost 21 seats while the Scottish Conservatives gained 12 - showed Sturgeon was "badly out of touch with public opinion" north of the Border.

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The SNP leader delayed plans for a second referendum in the wake of the Brexit vote back in June, telling MSPs she had decided to "reset" her proposed timetable.

Announcing the move, Sturgeon said that she continued to be "strongly committed" to Scotland holding a vote once the terms of Brexit have become clear.

But Mundell will call for the FM to rule out plans for another entirely.

"We’re told a second independence referendum is on the back burner," he will say. "Well, it’s time Nicola Sturgeon took a fire extinguisher to it so Scotland can get on with what really matters.

 "I hope she takes the opportunity to do so at her party’s conference in a few days’ time. If she won’t, we will. No-one else. Week in week out we see Scottish Labour flip-flopping on the constitution.

"The only way to guarantee the threat of a second independence referendum is swept off the table once and for all is to install Ruth Davidson as Scotland’s First Minister."