Attempts by opposition politicians to block a second referendum would be an ‘outrage’, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

In an interview with STV’s political editor Bernard Ponsonby the SNP leader commented on previous statements made by both the Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale and the Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson. Davidson said that she would instruct the Prime Minister to tell Sturgeon to “take a hike” if she requested a second referendum.

Sturgeon said: “I don’t think that would happen in those circumstances because I think any politician that tried to stand in the way of what was clearly the will of the Scottish people would end up getting short shift from the electorate.

She continued: “The real challenge for politicians, not just Ruth Davidson but Kezia Dugdale and I watched you talk to her last night as well, is are they really suggesting that if there was clear evidence that people in Scotland wanted to be independent they would stand in the way of that opinion?

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“That is anti-democratic and it would be an outrage to democracy. Whatever the bluff and bluster we hear from them during an election campaign I don’t it would be the reality”.

The First Minister’s record on health was put under examination.

Earlier on Thursday a survey of GPs found that 90% of those asked believed that morale had fallen in the last five years and that over a quarter planned to leave the profession within the next five years.

The SNP leader said: “Our manifesto sets out much of what we are going to do about that. Building on what we have been doing – before the election I set out plans to increase the number of GPs in training by a hundred every year so that we increase the supply of GPs in the future.

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“That will start next year. Our manifesto is very explicit about, firstly, our commitment to increase the health budget by more than inflation over the [next] parliament. We are pledging a higher increase in the health budget than any other party. But also to transfer more every year of the health budget into primary care, community care, social care – the services that keep people out of hospital.”

It was put to Sturgeon that she had already broken her manifesto commitment on increasing GP numbers. On October 27, 2015 Sturgeon said that she would increase the number of training places from 300 to 400 from “next year”.

The SNP leader was accused of being in the mould of Thatcher over her council tax stance.

Under the party’s proposals central government would cap any rise in council tax decided by a local council by 3%. The capping of local government taxes was a practice used by Conservative Scottish secretaries to regional councils in the decades before devolution.

“I think I have a duty as First Minister to, yes, give flexibility to councils but also to protect those who pay council tax and I think the proposal we put forward which incidentally nearly every other party has more of less backed is to say that – that is a fair balance”, Sturgeon argued.

When it was put to the First Minister that she was governing as a Thatcherite she laughed off the comparison and said “don’t be ridiculous”.

“When I go round my constituency and say to people ‘do you want to go back to the days where your council tax is out of control, where it is going up and up and up every year?’ almost to a person they would say to me ‘No, I don’t want that’.

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“In fact many of the people I have spoken to in this campaign are not even that happy with the idea of their council tax going up by even 3%. So I think we are striking the right balance and I suspect, although I take nothing for granted, the result of the election will prove that we are striking the right balance”.