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Nicola Sturgeon has given her strongest indication yet of a pact with Labour – in return for the right to hold an independence referendum next year.

Writing exclusively for the Sunday Mail, the First Minister has revealed her MSPs will begin planning for a new poll in 2020 immediately after returning from recess in three weeks’ time.

She has said the SNP will “work hard with others” to end Boris Johnson’s premiership but warned a key election issue will be “who has the right to decide Scotland’s future”.

Sturgeon has insisted that her Government has a “cast iron mandate” for a new vote and opened the door to a deal with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to deliver it.

She writes: “We’ll continue to work hard with others to stop Brexit and remove the Tories from office.

“A UK general election seems inevitable sooner rather than later.

(Image: Getty Images)

“In Scotland, with Labour too busy fighting themselves to care about jobs and living standards, that election will be a two-horse race between the SNP and the Tories.

"It will give us the opportunity to play our part in locking this right-wing Tory party out of government.

“A key issue will be this – who has the right to decide Scotland’s future – Boris Johnson or the people of Scotland?

“It is perfectly legitimate to oppose independence but it can’t be right to deny people in Scotland the right to choose – and just as Labour’s position has crumbled in the last week, the Tories will find that trying to block democracy is an unsustainable position in a democratic country.”

There is speculation Corbyn will trigger a no-confidence vote in Johnson over his Brexit plans. The votes of SNP MPs would be crucial in achieving that aim and also in propping up a potential Labour government.

If successful, it would almost certainly lead to a general election this autumn in which Labour could join forces with the SNP to force the Tories into opposition.

In return, Sturgeon would expect Corbyn as prime minister to grant a Section 30 order that would allow IndyRef2.

While predicting annihilation for Richard Leonard’s Scottish Labour over his refusal to support a referendum, Sturgeon praised Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s “refreshing” comments at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last week that holding a new independence vote would be up to Holyrood.

She writes: “Since 2014, we have been hearing from Westminster parties that despite the people of Scotland having a clear right to decide their future, they’d block that right.

“That’s to be expected from the anti-democratic Tories but Labour should always have known better.

(Image: Getty Images)

“So it was a refreshing change to hear John McDonnell recognise and accept that it is the Scottish Parliament and people who should decide on the question of whether to hold a referendum on independence and that Westminster should not block that decision.”

The FM added it was hard to see how Scottish Labour could recover from Leonard’s refusal to support McDonnell’s views and claimed many of the party’s supporters north of the border were in “complete despair”.

While Sturgeon would like to leverage an independence referendum by supporting Labour, there have also been rumours that Remain-supporting MPs in the Tory and Labour parties are prepared to join forces to form a “government of national unity” to oust Johnson and delay Brexit.

Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has responded to McDonnell’s remarks by saying that her party would “always stand up for our United Kingdom”.