NICOLA Sturgeon has admitted she could lose a swathe of seats in the General Election and still claim a “win” by getting more votes and seats than any other party.

The First Minister said the vote on June 8 would not decide whether Scotland became independent, but was instead about restraining the next Conservative government.

Her bid to decouple the election from independence came as a poll suggested the Scottish Conservatives could win a dozen seats north of the Border with their pro-Union campaign.

She said winning simply meant “getting more votes and more seats than any other party”, rather than anything approaching the previous SNP tsunami, when the party returned 56 MPs in 2015.

After Theresa May called the election last week, Ms Sturgeon immediately linked the SNP’s performance with independence, saying the result could “reinforce” her call for a second referendum.

But she shifted position at the Scottish Trades Union Congress in Aviemore yesterday, insisting she already had a referendum mandate, and the result would not affect that.

Asked by reporters what she would say to past SNP supporters switching to the Tories because of the constitutional issue, Ms Sturgeon said: “The election won’t decide whether or not Scotland becomes independent. We got a mandate for the referendum in the election last year. So this is about whether Scotland’s voice is heard and Scotland’s interests protected. There is a clear choice. A vote for the Tories is not some pain-free tactical vote.”

On the possibility of losing SNP seats, she said winning simply meant “getting more votes and more seats than any other party.”

It came as a new survey suggested support for independence is weakening, with 60 per cent backing staying in the UK while 40 per cent want Scotland to leave, when undecided voters are excluded.

The latest Kantar Scottish Opinion Monitor survey of 1,060 people in Scotland found that 46 per cent of people do not want a second referendum at all, while only 26 per cent backed the timetable of a poll in autumn 2018 or spring 2019.

A Panelbase survey for the Sunday Times at the weekend found 33 per cent support for the Scottish Tories, who have made resisting another referendum their rallying cry, with the SNP on 44, Labour on 13, and the Liberal Democrats on five.

It suggested the Tories could gain 10 SNP seats, and oust Labour’s only Scottish MP Ian Murray in Edinburgh South.

A BMG/Herald poll has also found continued opposition to an early second referendum. Excluding don’t knows, opposition to a poll before 2021 was ahead at 54 per cent to 46 per cent.

Mrs May is in Wales today, as a poll there puts the Conservatives on 40 per cent (up 12) with Labour on 30 per cent (down three). If repeated on June 8, the Tories would gain 10 seats and replace Labour in some of the party’s strongholds.

In 2015, Nationalists said that year’s election was not about independence as it won 56 of Scotland’s 59 seats. The SNP manifesto said: “The SNP will always support independence – but that is not what this election is about.”

Tory MSP Miles Briggs said: “There is one cast-iron rule about the SNP: whenever it says something has got nothing to do with independence, it’s a sure fire way of knowing it has everything to do with independence.”

In another attack, Ms Sturgeon suggested Mrs May had called a snap election because some of her MPs faced imminent prosecution for expenses fraud.

She told STUC delegates: “We should not allow the Tory party to escape the accountability for any misdemeanors that may have led to them buying the last General Election.”

The Electoral Commission fined the Conservatives a record £70,000 and reported its former UK treasurer to the police for “significant failures” in reporting election spending.

A dozen English police forces have passed files to the Crown Prosecution Service over allegations up to 20 Tory MPs broke local spending limits.

A Scottish Conservative source said: “This is bizarre stuff from the First Minister. Coming from the party leader who had to suspend two of her MPs in the last two years, her allegations of wrong-doing sound thin”.

A party spokesman said it would continue to co-operate with the authorities in the investigation.

Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie said: “Nicola Sturgeon is taking Scots for fools if she thinks we’ll believe her codswallop on the purpose of the election. She has spent weeks demanding a referendum but now wants us to forget all about it.”