Nicola Sturgeon has congratulated Donald Trump on his presidential election victory after having previously stripped him of his role as an ambassador for Scottish businesses on the world stage.

The First Minister, who had repeatedly made clear her support for Hillary Clinton, said it was not the result she had hoped for but “the verdict of the American people must be respected.”

She said the family, cultural and business links that “bind” Scotland and the US will “always endure” but appealed to Mr Trump “to reach out to those who felt marginalised by his campaign.”

The president-elect’s mother emigrated to the US from the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides and he owns two golf courses in Scotland, the world-renowned Turnberry resort in Ayrshire and a facility he controversially built next to protected sand dunes in Aberdeenshire.

But Ms Sturgeon last December stripped him of his membership of GlobalScot – a network of business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives with a connection to Scotland – after he called for Muslims to be banned from entering the US.

Several SNP MPs called for him to be banned from entering the UK in retribution and Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University took away an honorary degree.