NICOLA Sturgeon has appeared to move away from announcing a “precise timescale” on a second referendum this autumn, saying she will merely set out the “next steps” instead.

The First Minister repeatedly used the more modest phrase in an interview with the BBC.

In June last year, when she reset plans for a new vote after the SNP lost a third of its MPs in the election, she told Holyrood she would return with an update this autumn.

She promised her view “on the precise timescale for offering people a choice over the country’s future”.

But asked about the timing of a referendum on the Andrew Marr Show, Ms Sturgeon made no reference to any timescale.

She said: “I will set out what I think the next steps are when we are at the end of this phase of negotiations. When Theresa May comes back with the [Brexit] deal, we will judge that.

“It looks as if might be November. I will set out my views on the next steps at that stage.”

Pressed on whether she would tell people the timing of second referendum before Christmas, she said again: “I will set out my views on the next steps at that stage.”

Any watering down of her previous commitment will add to frustration among Yes campaigners about the slow progress toward a referendum.

A new poll suggests Scots would vote 52-48 for independence if there was a chaotic No Deal Brexit.

Ms Sturgeon also said the SNP still had work to do making the case for independence, and voters would deserve a detailed proposition.

Asked if she thought Brexit made Scottish independence inevitable, she said: “I think Scottish independence will happen. If you’re asking me to use the term inevitable, I guess yes I would use that. I think we’re on a journey that will end with independence.”

On the BBC Sunday Politics Show, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford was unable to say if there would be a second referendum before the next Holyrood election in 2021.

He will tell the SNP conference in Glasgow: “The democratic outrage of Brexit is crystallising the case for Scotland having the full control over its own affairs - no wonder that polls are showing support for independence at record high levels.”

SNP strategist Kevin Pringle said there was “little prospect” of a referendum before 2021 and the SNP and Greens should try to get a clear mandate at the next election instead.

He said it had been relatively easy to secure the referendum after the 2011 Scottish election because then Prime Minister David Cameron assumed it would be a “walk in the park”.

However, now, with the polls showing consistently strong support for independence, the UK government had “no reason to enter into a referendum unless it really has to”.

He said if people could be persuaded to vote for one of the pro-referendum parties, that could translate into support for a Yes vote.

Former SNP cabinet secretary Alex Neil also said that Ms Sturgeon would need to secure a new mandate at the 2021 election to secure a referendum and be more radical to win it.

The Brexiter said that the party would lose if it stuck with plans to rejoin the EU after Brexit.

In a newspaper article, he wrote: “Sticking with our current policy that an independent Scotland would rejoin the EU would be a huge mistake and could cost us victory in Indyref2.”

Labour MSP Neil Findlay said: “The First Minister isn’t standing up for Scotland by continuing to threaten to divide Scotland with another referendum.”