THERESA May begins her Brexit Grand Tour of the UK today with a visit to Wales, raising the prospect that she will visit Scotland for a showdown with Nicola Sturgeon next week.

No 10 made clear that the Prime Minister’s visit to Wales today was part of a “series of visits,” involving the devolved nations ahead of the triggering of Article 50 set for the middle of next week.

Mrs May’s visit comes as Swansea signs its historic City Deal, which is expected to create more than 9,000 jobs and trigger almost £1.3 billion in investment.

On Tuesday, MSPs will begin their two-day deliberations on the issue of whether or not to give the First Minister a mandate to seek a parliamentary order to transfer the power from Westminster to Holyrood to hold a second independence referendum. Given the majority the SNP has with the Greens, the Scottish Parliament is widely expected to give Ms Sturgeon that mandate.

However, last week the PM made clear this was not the time to hold another vote on Scotland’s future and that she would refuse a so-called Section 30 Order even if Holyrood voted for one.

UK Government ministers have also made clear they have no intention of entering into discussions with the SNP administration on a second referendum until after the Brexit deal is completed, expected to be in March 2019.

Whitehall insiders have suggested that, to all intents and purposes, the UK Government’s position is that there will be no second poll until after the 2021 Holyrood election.

This is because Mrs May and her colleagues believe that without a majority in Edinburgh, the SNP has no mandate to call for another vote.

On Sunday, Ms Sturgeon, who has set her preferred timeframe for so-called indyref2 between the autumn of 2018 and the spring of 2019, suggested she might be willing to move it a few months.

Stressing how she was open to discussions with the PM, the FM told ITV’s Peston on Sunday: “What I also said is if that timetable changes, if the two-year Article 50 process was, for example, to be extended or some other change that we can’t foresee right now, then, of course, that window that I’ve set may change as well because what’s most important in all of this is that Scotland gets an informed choice.”

Meantime, as a Panelbase poll for the Sunday Times put support for independence at 44 per cent, one point lower than it was in 2014, Ruth Davidson insisted many Scots backed Mrs May’s position on refusing another independence vote before Brexit.

The Scottish Conservative leader told BBC TV’s Marr programme: “I have to tell people: the SNP is not Scotland and they are acting against the majority wishes of the people of Scotland.

“I have just read far too many headlines that Scotland reacts to X and Scotland reacts Y and it doesn't. There are people across Scotland, many thousands of them, that are so thankful for the Prime Minister to actually say, let's take a pause on this.”