Nicola Sturgeon has little or no chance of getting a second independence referendum this year, one of her MPs has admitted despite her claims her demand for a vote is "irresistible."

Kenny MacAskill, the East Lothian MP and the former Scottish Justice Minister, said the probability of another separation vote being staged in the short term is "slim" and "more likely nil."

But, amid expert criticism of the SNP's latest currency policy for a separate Scotland, he said the additional time could be "no bad thing given the failure to have resolved some critical issues from 2014."

He also called for protest marches campaigning for another independence referendum, and hinted at peaceful civil disobedience of the sort seen against the Poll Tax in the 1980s.

Rather than gloat about Labour's electoral rout in the recent general election, he argued the SNP should cooperate with it to whip up anti-Tory anger and confront a Boris Johnson Government "the Scottish people loathe and fear."