ANGUS Robertson has reassured SNP activists there will be a second independence referendum based on Brexit, despite Theresa May refusing to allow it.

With the SNP leadership regarding Mrs May’s position as the opening gambit in a longer negotiation, the party’s Westminster leader insisted a vote would ultimately go ahead.

He accused the Prime Minister of wagging her finger at Scots “as if we were naughty children who should shut up and sit on the naughty step”.

He said: “Well I’ve got news for you Prime Minister, your mask has slipped and the real face of Tory arrogance is there for all to see.”

Ruling out a referendum on Nicola Sturgeon’s preferred timetable on before spring 2019, Mrs May said it was not the time for a vote, given the UK’s need to focus on Brexit talks.

But addressing delegates at the start of the SNP’s two-day spring conference in Aberdeen, Mr Robertson said: “Let there be no doubt, Scotland will have its referendum and the people of this country will have their choice. They will not be denied their say.

“Scotland’s referendum is going to happen, and no UK Prime Minister should dare to stand in the way of Scottish democracy.”

He said Mrs May’s reaction showed the Tories were “simply scared of the people’s choice”.

He said: “We cannot drift along for the next two years and hope for the best. We face the real prospect of right-wing Tory governments until at least 2030 and being dragged out of the EU and Single Market with all the damage to our economy and society that will cause.

“If the Prime Minister refuses to engage on the terms of a referendum before Brexit takes place then she is effectively trying to block the people of Scotland having a choice over their future. That would be a democratic outrage.

“So when the terms of Brexit are known - and not before - we will give the people the choice over the direction Scotland should take - before it is too late to change course.”

The comments fuelled speculation that the SNP might hold an advisory referendum without Westminster consent, an option Alex Salmond flirted with in the 2007-11 parliament, but which would almost certainly be buried by legal challenges.

However SNP staff later stressed there were no such plans, and the party would follow the precedent of 2014 and work to secure referendum powers from Westminster.

With MSPs expected to back Ms Sturgeon’s call for a Section 30 order next week, Mr Robertson said: "The big question for Theresa May is: does she respect Scottish democracy? Will she give a clear and unambiguous statement that she will respect the wishes of Scotland's national parliament?

"If she does not, this will be the proof that the Tories have returned to the bad old days of Thatcher's Britain running roughshod over Scotland, and we will not accept that."

Mr Robertson also said May’s council elections would be a straight choice between the SNP and Tories, even though the parties won 35 and 9 per cent of councillors respectively in 2012.

In remarks which suggests the SNP is relishing the current constitutional crisis pitching them against Mrs May, he said: “The local government elections are really important. They are a straight choice between the SNP and the Tories.”

Scottish LibDem MP Alistair Carmichael said: “Everyone should be scared of a second referendum. That includes the SNP if they were not blind to its consequences because of their obsession with independence.

"We should be scared of consequences for economy or more uncertainty on top of Brexit uncertainty, and afraid of the already deep divisions in Scotland that this will make worse.”