MacAskill: Now is not the time for poll

second referendum to be delayed. The veteran Nationalist criticised party leaders for losing crucial votes at the General Election by “jumping too far ahead of public opinion”.

Scottish Conservative deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said: “In the week since the General Election result, Nicola Sturgeon has shown a complete failure of leadership.

“Instead of listening to the message she was given, she has ignored people in Scotland who want her to take a second referendum off the table.

“Instead, we now face Scotland being left in limbo by a First Minister who is putting her job as SNP leader before her duty as First Minister.

“Scotland can’t be left hanging around while Nicola Sturgeon works out how to march her party faithful back down the hill.

“She needs to show some leadership and respond now.”

A spokesman for Miss Sturgeon last week insisted the First Minister had no timescale on when she’d set out her thoughts on Indyref2, saying the start of Brexit talks tomorrow – without an official UK Government in place – was the priority.

Meanwhile, SNP MSP Bill Kidd has called on Labour to clarify its position on Trident after a week where he claimed the party put forward “multiple different positions” on the nuclear submarines and suggested that its position could change further still.

He said: “Labour’s contradictory positions on Trident are beyond farcical. It is unforgivable that they are unable to have a single clear policy position. Voters deserve to know whether these MPs will back policies from the UK or the Scottish manifesto.”