NICOLA Sturgeon's decision not rule out a second independence referendum within the next five years is "beneath her," Ruth Davidson has said.

In her most stinging attack of the election campaign so far, the Scots Tory leader claimed the SNP had "utterly ignored" the result of the 2014 referendum.

She insisted her staunch opposition to a second referendum was winning support for the Tories across the country and had helped put her party "right on course" to beat Labour into third place when Scots go to the polls on May 5.

Ms Davidson hit out after Ms Sturgeon confirmed she would not include a clear-cut pledge of a second referendum in the SNP manifesto, to be published on Wednesday.

However, the First Minister said there should be a second referendum when a majority of voters agreed or if there was a significant change in circumstances since 2014, such the UK leaving the EU against the wishes of most Scots.

Some Nationalists have criticised Ms Sturgeon for refusing to seek an unequivocal mandate to stage a referendum re-run, arguing the move would make it harder to organise a legally binding vote.

But in an interview with The Herald, Ms Davidson insisted the SNP would press ahead with a poll if it was confident of victory.

She said: "I think if there was a window, even a glimpse, of a period of time in which the SNP thought they could win another independence referendum, they would call it immediately.

"They wouldn't hesitate, they wouldn't pause.

"All this discussion about starting a new campaign in the summer, all the talk of 'material changes,' it is reserving the parking space.

"It is saying, 'We're ready to go just as soon as we can win'."

She added: "I think it is really, really cynical.

"I'm a little bit disappointed because I think it is beneath Nicola, it is beneath the office of first minister to utterly ignore the decision the country made."

She claimed there had been a "pretty strong" backlash to Ms Sturgeon's plan, announced last month, for a summer campaign to boost support for independence.

Ms Davidson was also quizzed by Herald readers during a live Q&A on Facebook.

Facing more questions about the SNP's independence drive, she hinted she would support David Cameron if he tried to block a second referendum.

She said the SNP "have signed this one away" by accepting the Edinburgh Agreement, the inter-government deal that paved the way for a legally binding referendum, in which both sides undertook to accept the result.

"It was a really clear margin I don't think 18 months on is respecting that result," she said.

Ms Davidson underlined her support for renewing Britain's nuclear deterrent, criticising Labour's mixed messages on the issue and saying she would stand alongside engineering unions which backed Trident.

She also repeated her claim that a depleted Scottish Labour returning to Holyrood with "the same old faces, only fewer of them" would not provide real opposition to the SNP.

She said Kezia Dugdale's party would be "even less able and less willing" to hold the government to account, as it tried simply to"out-left" the Nationalists on a range of issues.

Responding to questions on social media, Ms Davidson also revealed a fondness for Nando's, the chain of Portuguese-theme spicy chicken restaurants.

Asked her favourite sauce, she said: "I'm a 'medium' girl, I'd love to be able to go up to the 'hot'. I love a cheeky Nando's."