Nicola Sturgeon shelves plans for second Scottish referendum

A second referendum on Scottish independence will be postponed until after Brexit, Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed.

The First Minister said plans for another vote has been shelved amid a “reset” of the timetable leading up to the ballot.

Ms Sturgeon had said in March she wanted to give Scots a second chance to vote on leaving the UK some time between the autumn of 2018 and the spring 2019.

But she told MSPs at Holyrood on Tuesday: "We will not seek to introduce the legislation for an independence referendum immediately."

The Scottish National Party leader has been reconsidering plans for the vote since her party lost 21 seats in the General Election.

Prime Minister Theresa May had earlier urged Ms Sturgeon to take the possibility of a second referendum off the table completely.

However, the Scottish leader added that she "strongly believed" the country should have a choice on its future at the end of the Brexit process.

She said: "They want greater clarity about Brexit to emerge first, and they want to be able to measure that up against clarity about the options Scotland would have for securing a different relationship with Europe.

"They want the Scottish government to focus as hard as we can on securing the best possible outcome for Scotland."

The first referendum was held in September 2014 and saw Scots from the age of 16 upwards flock to polling stations to cast their ballots.

The ‘no’ side won with 55.25 per cent of the vote. 2,001,926 voted against the country becoming independent.

Some 1,617,989 people voted for independence making up 44.65 per cent of the vote.

Voter turnout was the highest for any UK referendum at 84.6 per cent.

Turnout for the Brexit vote on June 23 last year totaled 72.2 per cent.