Legislation for a second Scottish independence referendum will be tabled this week, Nicola Sturgeon has told journalists in Dublin.

The First Minister also said she would like a vote to be held in the current parliamentary term, adding that the "latter half" of next year would be the "right time".

She has also vowed to keep working to try to stop Brexit after the SNP secured an "historic and spectacular victory" in the European elections.

Her party increased its share of the vote, securing 37.7 per cent of all votes cast north of the border and winning three out of the six Scottish MEPs.

While the SNP vote increased from 28.9% in the 2014 European elections, Labour's support plummeted, with the party paying the price for its lack of a clear message on the crucial issue of Brexit.

Labour polled less than a 10th (9.3%) of the votes, putting it in fifth place, and down from 25.9% five years ago.

It was Nigel Farage's newly formed Brexit Party who came second in Scotland, with 14.8% of the vote, giving the party one Scottish MEP, Louis Stedman-Bryce.

The Liberal Democrats, who lost their MEP in 2014, won a seat this time round after taking their share of the vote from 7.1% to 13.9%.

And the Scottish Tories held on to their one MEP, with Baroness Nosheena Robarik returned to the European Parliament after the party polled 11.6% of the vote.

But with the SNP securing 594,553 votes, and topping the poll in 30 of the 32 local authority areas in Scotland, Ms Sturgeon said: "This is an historic and spectacular victory for the SNP, and an overwhelming rejection of Brexit by the people of Scotland."

The First Minister, speaking from Dublin, said: "The UK political system has failed - and it has failed Scotland utterly.

"Scotland said no to Brexit in 2016. This result makes clear, we meant it.

"The message from Scotland today is that we will not accept a Brexit process that silences our nation, that treats our parliament and government with contempt and that fails to represent the interests of people in Scotland."

She pledged: "The SNP will continue working with other parties to stop Brexit and all the ensuing economic damage to Scotland."

Ms Sturgeon's confirmation that legislation for an independence referendum will be tabled this week has been criticised by the Scottish Tories.

Chief whip Maurice Golden said: “The SNP went into this election pretending to voters that it was nothing to do with independence.

“Yet within hours of it being announced, Nicola Sturgeon is specifically using it to argue for separation.

“That’s fraudulent behaviour from an SNP government that’s meant to be running the country, not trying to break it up.

“Voters punished Nicola Sturgeon last time she abused the Brexit process for her own selfish aims.

“They will do so again if this hypocritical deceit continues.”

Struan Stevenson, chief executive of Scottish Business UK, which represents pro-Union business leaders, said: "The European Union election results demonstrated clearly the public's disdain for the chaos and divisions caused by attempts to withdraw from a long standing economic union.

“Business and industry in Scotland don't want more chaos, division and uncertainty and that is what they would get in spades if Nicola Sturgeon proceeds with her divisive plans for a further referendum on Scottish independence.”