The First Minister is expected to come under increasing pressure from her parliamentarians today to firm up her pledge immediately after the Brexit vote that a second independence referendum is “highly likely”.

Alex Salmond, her predecessor, has argued that a rerun would have to be staged within the two-year period for the UK’s Brexit negotiations, which is expected to start when the Article 50 process is triggered early next year.

But the nationalists’ case has been undermined by continuing confusion over their preferred currency and warnings that a separate Scotland would not even be allowed in the EU, with Scottish Government figures last week showing a deficit that is higher even than Greece’s.

Ms Sturgeon is expected to tell the gathering that the EU referendum result, which saw Scotland vote a margin of 62 per cent to 38 per cent to Remain, represented a “seismic” change that will have a “deep impact” on the party’s ambitions for the country.