At a press conference in Edinburgh, Ms Davidson said the SNP leader now had “no mandate, no majority and no cause” to hold another vote on the issue, and any claims to the contrary had been “utterly shredded”.

Ms Davidson was speaking after the Tories recorded their best-ever Holyrood result by securing 31 MSPs to overtake Labour while the SNP took 63 of the 129 seats, failing to win a second overall majority.

Speaking at the Apex Hotel in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket, Ms Davidson said: “As I said during the election campaign, the SNP manifesto does not give Nicola Sturgeon a mandate for a second independence referendum.

“Now that she has failed to win a majority, whatever claims the SNP were pursuing with regard to constitutional brinkmanship over the next five years have now been utterly shredded.

“No mandate, no majority, no cause – the SNP must now let Scotland move on.

“There has been a material change. As she starts her new term of office, I hope Nicola Sturgeon makes it clear that she will now focus entirely on what she was elected to do – lead a devolved administration.

“She should give families and firms the certainty they need. Nicola Sturgeon has it within her power to do that.

“I urge her to start this new parliament by ruling out another referendum.”

David Fuller's view

Ruth Davidson is a strong, sensible minority leader for Scotland and I agree with some of our subscribers in that beautiful country who maintain that the SNP has peaked.  I doubt that Nicola Sturgeon or any other SNP leader will have another absolute majority because their policies are too divisive and too socialist for canny Scots, who wish to build on their 300-plus years of success in the United Kingdom. 

Combative Nicola Sturgeon will not want to rule out another referendum because leaving the UK is the SNP’s main objective.  However, if she was foolish enough to try, I think it would be soundly defeated and hasten the SNP’s decline in the process. 

(See also 22/12/2015, 10/11/2015, 19/08/2015, and 18/08/2015)