Nicola Sturgeon has called on the PM to grant Holyrood the power to hold a second vote on Scottish independence.
The First Minister has formally written to Boris Johnson, calling for a Section 30 order to be granted.
It comes after Boris Johnson’s Conservatives swept to power with a large majority of 364 seats, while the SNP won 47 out of the total 59 seats in Scotland.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon demands permanent referendum power for Holyrood
SNP candidates and supporters celebrate at the end of election night at the Royal Highland Centre in Edinburgh (Lesley Martin/PA)
As she confirmed the move, Ms Sturgeon said: “The mandate we have to offer the Scottish people a choice over their future is, by any normal standard of democracy, unarguable.
“We are therefore today calling for the UK Government to negotiate and agree the transfer of power that would put beyond doubt the Scottish Parliament’s right to legislate for a referendum on independence.”
READ MORE: Section 30: What is it, how does it work and can Scotland hold another referendum without it?
Powers to hold a referendum are currently reserved to Westminster, therefore a Section 30 order is required if an independence ballot is to be held in Scotland.
If granted, powers are temporarily transferred from Westminster to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, allowing a referendum to be held.
The order is set out under the Scotland Act 1998, which just over two decades ago allowed for a Scottish Government of ministers and a Scottish Parliament to first come into force.
In October 2012, a request for a Section 30 order was granted after a deal was reached between then-first minister of Scotland Alex Salmond and the prime minister at the time, David Cameron.
That came after the SNP won an unprecedented overall majority in the Scottish Parliament in 2011 and it paved the way for the holding of a Scottish independence referendum in 2014.
The Edinburgh Agreement was signed by Alex Salmond (left) and David Cameron (Gordon Terris/The Herald/PA)
Months of talks between the Scottish and UK Governments resulted in the Edinburgh Agreement – the deal that allowed the historic ballot to take place.
Another Section 30 request was made by Ms Sturgeon in her role as First Minister in 2017 but it was rejected by Theresa May, who said that it was “not the time” for another referendum.
In the run-up to the December general election, Ms Sturgeon made it clear she would request a Section 30 order by the end of 2019, with the First Minister already having outlined plans to hold a second vote on Scottish independence in the latter part of next year.
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