13:22

Nicola Sturgeon Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

Nicola Sturgeon has strongly hinted again she is preparing to postpone a new Scottish independence referendum in favour of striking a far better Brexit deal, after the Scottish National party lost 21 Westminster seats at the election.

She told an audience of landowners and farmers at the Royal Highland Show on Friday that the increased instability presented by the election result meant she and Theresa May had a duty to reduce uncertainty, and find a consensus on Brexit.

She implied that the hung parliament, which increases pressure on May to compromise with opposition parties on Brexit, could lead to a Brexit deal which lessened the case for a new referendum.

With popular support for a new referendum fading, Sturgeon substantially changed tack in the weeks before the snap election, dropping her demands in March for one by spring 2019. She told the Guardian in early June “none of us actually know” when the right time for that vote would be.

Questioned on Friday whether the lack of clarity about her referendum plans was undermining business confidence, by two property investment experts at the RHS event, Sturgeon said her “absolute priority” now was to build consensus on Brexit across the UK.

She said: “I think the outcome of the election UK wide opens possibilities that perhaps we thought were closed to us. I think there is, in particular, a possibility now of building a consensus across the UK against that hard form of Brexit that was being pursued previously. So that will be the priority of the Scottish government over the next number of months.”

Pressed on the lack of clarity on her plans, she said: