15:44

Boris Johnson has made a “cast iron” pledge that he will not grant Nicola Sturgeon the powers she needs to hold a second independence referendum, regardless of whether the SNP wins a majority of Scottish seats in December’s general election or if they win a pro-independence majority in the Holyrood elections of 2021.

In his strongest rebuff yet to Sturgeon’s vow to hold a second vote on independence next year, Johnson used his first visit to Scotland of the election campaign to insist:

Absolutely, there is no case whatsoever [for a second referendum] because people were promised in 2014 that it would be a once in a generation event and I see no reason why we should go back on that pledge.

Describing Nicola Sturgeon and Jeremy Corbyn as “yoke-mates of destruction” in terms of the future stability of the union, he told reporters:

It’s perfectly obvious that Jeremy Corbyn is going to rely on the SNP to get him into power and to do that he’s done a shady deal to have a second referendum.

On Wednesday, the leader of Scottish Labour, Richard Leonard, categorically ruled out any form of electoral deal with the SNP, after Johnson warned against making 2020 the “year of two referendums” and Sturgeon told voters that demand for a second vote on independence would become “irresistible” if her party were to win the election in Scotland.

Johnson visited the Roseisle distillery, near Elgin, in Moray, accompanied by the local Scottish Conservative candidate, Douglas Ross, who won the seat from the SNP’s former Westminster leader Angus Robertson in 2017. Johnson spent little over an hour touring the rural distillery in a strictly managed visit during which he had no contact with the public.