NICOLA Sturgeon will today signal that a second independence referendum is on the back-burner and that her government will focus on the everyday issues that matter to people in Scotland.

Opening the SNP’s biggest ever conference in Aberdeen, the First Minister will put the party on an election footing ahead of the May Holyrood election.

However, the leader's speech emphasising a shift away from constitutional matters will disappoint thousands of Nationalists, who believe one more push in a second vote would secure independence for Scotland.

It will also reinforce the view that unless there is a “material change” any time soon, another independence poll is unlikely before 2021.

The SNP leader's renewed focus on domestic political issues comes as the Scottish Government has come under pressure on education, health and policing.

Peter Murrell, the SNP chief executive and Ms Sturgeon's husband, is also facing claims he broke spending rules in the run up to poll in September last year.

The Electoral Commission is to examine allegation that he helped run the pro-independence Business for Scotland campaign group despite its claims to be party-politically neutral.

In her speech, Ms Sturgeon will make clear that she does not only want to win the votes of independence supporters next May but also those who voted No.

“Everyone, from the strongest supporter of independence to the stoutest advocate of the Union, has the right to know that we will continue to govern well with the powers we have at any given time,” she will declare.

“There will, understandably, be significant interest in what our manifesto will say about independence but let me make this clear: what matters just as much to me and to people across the country will be what it says about jobs and the economy, the safety of our communities, our hospitals and health centres, our schools, colleges and universities and our plans to use new powers to tackle poverty and inequality.

“On all of these issues and many, many more, our manifesto will set out radical, ambitious and progressive policies to make this country even stronger.”

John Lamont, the Scottish Conservatives’ chief whip, said “The people of Scotland have waited more than eight years for the SNP to put the constitution aside and focus on issues that really matter. It begs the question why hasn’t Nicola Sturgeon said this before now?”

He added: “While the Scottish Government has been spending millions of pounds and investing countless hours in trying to break Britain apart, standards have slipped. As a consequence our schools, hospitals and roads are not doing as well as they should be.”

Ian Murray for Scottish Labour insisted it was now time for the SNP Government to be judged on its record on health and education.

“The truth is that in our schools the gap between the richest and the rest is growing and our hospitals are struggling,” declared the Shadow Scottish Secretary.

"Just this week we saw specialist support sent to Scotland’s £850 million flagship hospital for the second time in four months after the hospital had the worst waiting times it had ever had with almost a quarter of patients waiting more than four hours for treatment.

“Today, we see Scotland lagging behind the rest of the UK for jobs figures. The SNP have been in government for eight years now, they are starting to look like the establishment in Scotland, an establishment that is running out of ideas,” he added.

Ms Sturgeon will describe the scale of the SNP’s three-day conference as “awesome” with 3500 delegates and almost 1000 observers, exhibitors and journalists. It will be, she will boast, the “biggest ever gathering in the history of the SNP”.

The fact that the SNP is now, with 55 MPs, Britain’s third party has prompted moves to get the timetable of the party conference season changed.

At present, the UK Parliament goes into recess for several weeks in the autumn while the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Conservatives each hold their consecutive annual conferences.

But a senior party source pointed out that there was a growing feeling within the SNP hierarchy that, given the scale of its Westminster representation, the conference season should be moved to reflect the fact that the Nationalists were now the third party and not the Lib Dems.

“The annual conference is an opportunity to showcase policies with broadcasting time and press coverage. It is only right that the SNP, as Britain’s third party, is now included. Colleagues are working on it,” said the source.

Any change, agreed by the parties themselves in conjunction with the Commons Speaker, could mean the usual Westminster conference recess being put back, starting from late September to late October, so that the Lib Dems are excluded and the sequence becomes Labour, Tories and SNP. But any such move would be strongly resisted by Tim Farron and the Liberal Democrats.