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Nicola Sturgeon is willing to pay for EU citizens to stay in Scotland after Brexit, she said today.

The First Minister announced plans to cover any costs that EU citizens might have to pay to get their settled status after we leave in 2019.

In her speech to the SNP conference later this week Ms Sturgeon will commit to exploring "all options" to secure EU citizens' status in the country.

This includes meeting the costs any public sector workers might be charged to stay in the UK as a result of leaving the EU.

Writing in the Sunday Herald today , the party leader said the Tories had failed to give guarantees to people who were living here now - and this was “morally indefensible” and "economically short-sighted".

Speaking ahead of the conference, party leader Ms Sturgeon said: "EU citizens have made their lives here and are part of our community. They contribute to our economy, work in our universities, teach in our schools and work in our health service, just as those who were born in Scotland do.

"EU citizens make an enormous contribution and we must recognise that.

"After 18 months, many still do not have the answers they seek.

"As a result, some are choosing to leave and others who would have been attracted to the UK and Scotland no longer wish to come here. That is a disgrace.

"The UK Government must guarantee their rights and make the process for staying here as simple and easy as possible."

It is estimated around 20,000 EU citizens work directly for Scotland's public sector, including the NHS, with many more employed in services such as social care.

The First Minister will also confirm that the Scottish Government will expand its migration support for private businesses who employ people from the EU and other countries.

Sturgeon said she would not set out a timetable for another possible referendum on Scottish independence until Britain had more clarity on its future relationship with the European Union after Brexit .

Her party backed off on the offer of a new Scottish independence referendum this summer after her party lost electoral support in Britain's June national election.

"I won't give any further consideration to the timing, until Brexit and the terms of Brexit become clearer, until we've got a clear line of sight about what all that means for Scotland," she told the BBC's Andrew Marr on Sunday. "We will consider the timing again when we have more clarity."

She said, however, the public mood around the future relationship between Britain and the trading bloc had changed since the national election in June which saw Prime Minister Theresa May lose her majority.

"It would be an act of monumental folly for UK to come out of single market," she said.