06:18

Mike Russell, Scotland’s constitutional relations secretary, has urged Scottish National party activists to bide their time on staging a new independence referendum, warning them that independence “isn’t just about grabbing a lifeboat in choppy and dangerous seas.”

In an explicit and candid demand to remain patient about the timing of a new vote, Russell also hinted strongly there could be a long delay before Nicola Sturgeon decided on the optimum opportunity to stage that vote.

He told delegates on the final day of the SNP’s annual conference in Glasgow the party needed to get the timing of the referendum and its arguments for leaving the UK perfectly framed. He said:

Deciding the when can only come after agreeing on the why. Because the why isn’t just about grabbing a lifeboat in choppy and dangerous seas.

At the weekend, about 20,000 hardline independence activists marched through Edinburgh, staging a rally on Holyrood park near the Scottish parliament despite a ban on the event by the conservation quango Historic Environment Scotland which runs the park.

But Sturgeon is wrestling with a dilemma on whether to prioritise the SNP’s battle over Brexit or independence: she has made clear she needs to wait until the outcome of the Westminster vote on Brexit before deciding, and may even need to wait until the details of Brexit are finalised over the next two years.

The latest spate of opinion polls shows support for independence remains stubbornly fixed at about 46 or 47% of voters, excluding don’t knows, although there are signs that a hard Brexit could push the yes vote to 52% - a figure still too low for comfort.

Russell, who is one of the most experienced SNP ministers in her team and has led Scottish government talks on Brexit with UK ministers, underscored that in his conference speech in Glasgow today. He said:

I chose independence when I joined the SNP some 44 years ago and I intend to see it happen. I am still full of hope, and the more so when I look at how this party has changed and grown over all those years – and goes on growing. But it can only happen when we find the right moment and the right arguments to make it happen. Our job as a party and as a government is to both make sure that Scotland flourishes, no matter the circumstances but also to ensure that – at the right moment – the choice of independence can be made. The right moment – not the most comfortable moment nor the moment that best relieves our natural impatience. The moment at which our country is persuaded, ready and determined to win.