NICOLA Sturgeon has defended publishing a Bill for a second referendum just days after the SNP won the European election by insisting the poll was not about independence.

The First Minister will issue legislation governing the rules of a referendum on Wednesday, although it will require extra powers from Westminster to give it legal effect.

She said she wanted the referendum in the second half of next year, but was unable to explain how she would get the required power, saying: “We’ll get on to that in good time.”

Opposition parties accused her of bad faith for pushing the issue immediately after the SNP’s win in the EU referendum despite Ms Sturgeon asking people to vote SNP to send an anti-Brexit message “whether you are for or against independence”.

The party polled a record 37.7 per cent of the vote and won three of Scotland's six MEPs.

Speaking to the media at a photocall with her MEPs, Ms Sturgeon was asked about the timing of the Bill and whether the EU result could be read as support for independence.

She said: “The result is a rejection of Brexit.

“But as I set out way before this campaign even started - I set it out in the Scottish Parliament in April - Scotland also needs to have a choice.

“And if the European election has done anything, it has illustrated yet again that Scotland and the rest of the UK are on different political paths.

“I said even before we knew there was going to be a European election [the UK government finally confirmed it on May 7] that we would bring forward a framework bill to start to put in place the arrangements for a referendum."

She went on: “This is about choice, it’s about the people of Scotland being in charge of the direction we take as a country.

“Do we want to be forced out of the EU against our will? Do we want to face the prospect of a Boris Johnson or Dominic Raab government propped up by Nigel Farage?”

Theresa May has already refused to transfer referendum powers to Holyrood under a Section 30 order, and her successor is equally unlikely to do so.

Asked how she could extract a Section 30 order from a UK government with little to gain from doing so, Ms Sturgeon was unable to provide an answer.

She said: “We’ll do what we can to put the rules in place and then at a later stage… we’ll deal with that issue. But I’m not going to spend a lot of time and energy speculating right now about what a future leader or a future Prime Minister might or might not do, when we don’t even know who these people are.”

Pressed on the issue, she went on: “We haven’t got it [the Bill] through parliament yet.

“We’ve got to do that over the next few months. In 2014 we got the Section 30 and then we did that bit. We’re doing it the other way round.

“This is a necessary part of the process. Given it’s a part of the process we can get on and do right now while the Tories get deeper and deeper into the mire they’re in.

“You’re absolutely right. This is a legitimate, important part of the jigsaw, but we’ll get on to that in good time.”

Brexit Secretary Michael Russell is due to table the framework legislation at Holyrood on Wednesday and make a statement to MSPs in the afternoon.

He is also due to set out details of the Scottish Government’s plan for a Citizens’ Assembly Initiative to give the public a say on the constitution.

However Ms Sturgeon’s official spokesman refused to say if the Bill would include a draft ballot showing the proposed question, which would need Electoral Commission approval.

Although the Commission set a Yes/No question for the 2014 referendum, it rejected the same formula for the EU referendum, imposing Leave/Remain instead.

A Leave/Remain format for a Scottish referendum would not be the SNP’s preference as it would muddle its campaign messaging.

Scottish Tory MSP Adam Tomkins said: “It will come as no surprise to anybody in Scotland that Nicola Sturgeon has decided to use the EU elections to manufacture the case for a second independence referendum. No matter what people in Scotland say or do, the SNP’s answer is always the same - to take us out of the UK.

“Only one in five people in Scotland say they want a referendum under Nicola Sturgeon’s absurd timetable. This latest stunt is all about her pandering to her party, not speaking for the country.”

Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie said: “People who backed the SNP to stop Brexit last week after Nicola Sturgeon promised the election was not about independence will feel let down. The SNP have misused their support to advance independence.

“Nicola Sturgeon wants to pile the chaos of independence on top of the chaos of Brexit.

“Not one patient will be seen quicker nor one school child get a better education as a result of Ms Sturgeon’s independence obsession. All it will do is damage our economy and hurt our public services.”

Pamela Nash, chief executive of Scotland in Union, said: “Nicola Sturgeon’s priorities are all wrong.

“When our hospitals and schools are in crisis, and there is a Brexit constitutional crisis that needs urgently resolved, it beggars belief that the SNP is fixating on an unwanted and divisive second independence referendum.

“This tells you everything you need to know about the SNP. It will always be division first, the country second.

“This reckless piece of legislation should be binned and Nicola Sturgeon should get back to the day job.”