NICOLA Sturgeon will set out “real and alternative” change for Scotland to escape Westminster rule when she unveils new plans to overhaul democracy through independence.

The First Minister will launch the second paper in the Scottish Government’s ‘building a new Scotland’ series – setting out the renewed case for independence.

Ms Sturgeon will reveal the ‘renewing democracy through independence’ chapter today – pointing to the “democracy denial” she claims is engulfing Westminster.

The First Minister will highlight the refusal from both the Conservatives and Labour to back her renewed call for a second independence referendum to be held in October next year – and will criticise attempts to “frustrate the will of the Scottish people”.

Ms Sturgeon is expected to say: “This discussion could not be more timely or urgent – the democratic deficit Scotland faces is not a recent phenomenon, but the evidence of it now is starker than ever.

“A Prime Minister with no democratic endorsement from Scotland is about to be replaced by yet another Prime Minister that Scotland hasn’t voted for – and wouldn’t vote for even if we were given the chance.

“All Scotland ever hears from UK politicians these days is democracy denial. They trade opinions on how many years it should be before Westminster might ‘allow’ us to make a democratic choice about our own future.

“The fact that the Scottish people have repeatedly elected a majority in the Scottish Parliament committed to an independence referendum is treated as immaterial. You don’t have to be a supporter of independence to know that’s not democracy.”

She will add: “That attitude is not surprising from Tories - but these days, where the Tories go, Labour seem obliged to follow. Just as in 2014, they are teaming up with the Tories to frustrate the will of the Scottish people.

“Labour’s positions are nothing to do with the interests, let alone the democratic wishes, of people in Scotland. They are just cynical political calculations, based on the deeply misguided belief that the way back to power is to adopt wholesale the policies of the Tory government they claim to oppose.

“What Scotland is hearing and seeing, on a daily basis, from Westminster parties encapsulates the democratic deficit that we face as part of the UK.

“Parties and policies that we reject are to be forced upon us – but the democratic right to choose an alternative is to be denied to us.

“And it underlines this point: Scotland doesn’t need a pale imitation of, or temporary respite from, Tory Government – it needs the real and permanent alternative that only independence offers.”

Scottish Conservative constitution spokesperson, Donald Cameron, warned that amid soaring A&E waiting times, "people will be outraged to see Nicola Sturgeon continuing to campaign for an independence referendum next year".

He added: “This SNP Government are once again focused on the wrong priority at the worst possible time.”

“The vast majority of Scots don’t want a divisive second referendum next year, yet it seems that the SNP are only too happy to ignore democracy when it doesn’t go their way.”