Nicola Sturgeon is expected at the SNP conference this afternoon, just a day after the party ditched her plan for a de facto independence referendum.

The former first minister’s presence in Aberdeen, complete with media interviews, threatens to upstage Humza Yousaf debut conference as SNP leader.

The pogramme for the second day of the three-day event is relatively quiet, and Ms Sturgeon's arrival around 1pm is guaranteed to create a media scrum.

READ MORE:  SNP would have independence mandate even with fewer votes, says Keith​ Brown

Former prime minister Liz Truss proved a headache for Rishi Sunak earlier this month when she gave a critical speech at the Tory party conference in Manchester.

On Sunday, Mr Yousaf secured the overwhelming backing of delegates for a new independence strategy going into the general election next year.

The party’s new position is that if it wins a majority of Scotland’s 57 redrawn seats it would constitute a mandate for independence talks with the UK Government.

Last year, Ms Sturgeon said that if the UK Supreme Court ruled Holyrood could not hold Indyref2 under its existing powers, she would use the election as a ‘de facto’ referendum.

READ MORE:  A good day for Humza Yousaf but party problems remain

Under her plan, winning a majority of votes cast would be a mandate for ending the Union,

However Mr Yousaf went out of his way to kill off that option yesterday, calling it a “trap”, and saying the SNP should not set itself a target for victory that no other party did.

He also persuaded MP Joanna Cherry KC to drop a rival plan for trying to secure a majority of votes from all pro-independence parties in a de facto referendum.

MP Pete Wishart was one of the last holdouts for Ms Sturgeon’s plan, urging delegates to back a de facto referendum based on the SNP alone winning a majority of votes.

However his proposal was overwhelmingly rejected, and Mr Yousaf’s plan based on winning a majority of Scotland’s MPs was adopted.

Ms Sturgeon was conspicuously not mentioned in Sunday’s debate, while Ms Cherry, one of her most prominent critics, spoke on stage and praised Mr Yousaf’s new style of leadership.

The six months since she quit as leader have been the most turbulent in the SNP's modern history, with a bruising leadership contest, audit problems, arrests in the long-running police probe into the SNP's finances, the loss of the Rutherglen by-election and the defection of an MP to the Tories.

The SNP has also dropped in the polls while Labour has improved its position.