WHITEHALL has brushed aside the Scottish Government’s insistence that Nicola Sturgeon has a mandate to call for a second independence referendum, arguing that Scotland’s Claim of Right does not uphold the First Minister’s position.

Last week, Ms Sturgeon told the SNP conference that Theresa May and her colleagues could not “and you will not deny Scotland’s right to choose" in deciding its future in a second referendum.

But the Prime Minister has repeatedly made clear she will not facilitate another Scottish vote in this parliament.

Asked how the Nationalists could force Mrs May to change her mind, Ian Blackford, the party’s leader at Westminster, said: “The PM talked about the nations of the UK being considered as equals. There’s also the principle of democracy. We have a mandate which is there from the 2016 election, there was a vote that took place in the Scottish Parliament that supported the right of the people of Scotland to vote in a referendum.

“I would simply say to the PM: if you believe in democracy, you cannot stand in the face of the wishes of the Scottish people expressed in a vote in the Scottish Parliament.”

When it was put to a spokesman for the Tory leader that Ms Sturgeon had branded any refusal by Mrs May to meet the SNP administration’s demand for a second independence poll as “anti-democratic,” he replied: “The PM has said on a number of occasions when the referendum was held in Scotland, it was deemed as an exercise that would settle the question for a generation...”

He added: “The PM thinks the focus Nicola Sturgeon should be addressing herself to is things like standards in schools and hospitals.”

Meanwhile, David Mundell has also suggested respecting the Claim of Right does not extend to accepting the 2017 Holyrood vote that the SNP insists mandated the FM to call for a second Scottish independence referendum.

The Claim is an historic principle agreed to by the Scottish Constitutional Convention in 1989 and by Holyrood in 2012, acknowledging the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of government, which best suits their needs.

In a parliamentary written response to a Westminster debate this summer on the subject, the Scottish Secretary emphasised how the UK Government had supported the motion, backing the Claim – it was passed without a vote – and the UK Parliament had itself already “demonstrated its endorsement quite clearly by legislating for the existence of the new Scottish Parliament in the first place”.

Mr Mundell explained how Westminster had continued to show its support for the Claim with a “significant deepening” of devolution through parliamentary Acts and orders.

He went on: “In line with the principles of the Claim of Right the people of Scotland have also provided their approval to another key part of Scotland’s democratic tradition; that of the Union.

“In the referendum of 2014 the people of Scotland voted clearly to remain part of the United Kingdom and have two parliaments and two governments. As we prepare to leave the EU, the arguments for Scotland remaining a part of the UK are just as compelling as they have always been.”

In March 2017, Holyrood approved the staging of another independence referendum by 69 to 59 votes.

Asked why he did not believe respecting the Claim extended to recognising this mandate, Mr Mundell replied: “That’s because the constitutional settlement that we have gave her the right to call for it but also gave us the right to say No.”

The Conservatives’ 2017 General Election manifesto states: “For a referendum to be fair, legal and decisive, it cannot take place until the Brexit process has played out and it should not take place unless there is public consent for it to happen.”

Mr Mundell and others have made clear that the “playing out” of the Brexit process will take the country beyond the 2022 General Election.