NICOLA Sturgeon will today blame a lack of respect by Westminster for undermining relations across the United Kingdom, and argue that independence is the solution.

The First Minister will use her key SNP conference speech to claim, in a point she admits “might seem curious”, that breaking up the UK would in fact improve the strained partnership between its four nations.

The Scottish Tories called it astonishing, “incoherent nonsense”.

Stepping up efforts to win support for independence ahead of a key court case on another referendum, Ms Sturgeon will blame Unionist belligerence for “fraying the bonds between us”.

The SNP leader will say: “I know some see independence as turning our back on the rest of the UK. “It is not - it is about recasting our relationship as one of equals.

“Independence is actually the best way to protect the partnership on which the United Kingdom was founded - a voluntary partnership of nations. Right now, an aggressive unionism is undermining that partnership.

“Scottish independence can reset and renew the whole notion of nations working together for the common good.

“England, Scotland, Wales, the island of Ireland. We will always be the closest of friends. We will always be family.

“But we can achieve a better relationship - a true partnership of equals – when we win Scotland’s independence.”

She will also say independence would deliver lower energy prices and higher wages for young people.

This week’s third instalment in her Government’s independence prospectus will “set out how we can build a new, sustainable economy based on our massive renewable energy resources, and it will show how in an independent Scotland, we can deliver lower energy prices and stronger security of supply.

“We will end age discrimination for those on the minimum wage. Young workers should be valued the same as everyone else - and with independence we can ensure their pay packets reflect that.”

But her urging of mutual respect comes just a day after she was accused of risking “nationalist violence” by using “really dangerous” language in a TV interview.

“I detest the Tories and everything they stand for,” she told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, moments after saying she wanted to work with Liz Truss as “a friend”.

Cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi said Ms Sturgeon “now talks about detesting the Conservatives - I think that language is really dangerous”. In a tweet, former Scottish

Tory leader Ruth Davidson said Ms Sturgeon’s use of the word detest was “clearly a rhetoric-raising strategy at SNP conference in order to other and traduce a quarter of the Scottish voting population”.

In a video posted on social media, Tory MSP Russell Findlay added: “First Minister, your words are dangerous. I fear the day when they incite nationalist violence.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “We could do with our political leaders showing some more care over their language and focussing on the challenges facing the people of Scotland.”

After the outcry, Ms Sturgeon claimed she had only meant Tory policies, not Tory people.

The ramping up of the independence campaign comes on the eve of a key moment for Ms Sturgeon’s strategy, with the UK Supreme Court starting hearings tomorrow on whether Holyrood could hold a referendum without Westminster’s consent.

If the court rules against her later this year, the First Minister has said she will fight the general election as a ‘de facto’ referendum on the single question of independence.

Former first minister Alex Salmond, now leader of the Alba party, last night slated the plan.

“The vacuum of strategic thinking which seems to have preceded the Supreme Court move does not augur well for the prospects of better planning of the aftermath.”

Ms Sturgeon yesterday said there was a public appetite for Indyref2 next year, despite polls saying support for it is about 30 per cent.

She said her plans were “ready to go” if the Court ruled in her favour. She said the UK Government didn’t want a re-run of the 2014 vote because unionists “don’t believe they can win the substantive case”.

She said: “If you are confident in your politics, if you are confident in the case that you are making, then you don’t fear democracy, you actually relish the opportunity to put your case before the people and let the people decide.”

Doorstepped by broadcasters at the conference about the ‘Hate-gate’ row, she refused to apologise.

She said: “I’ve spent my entire political career arguing against, standing against everything the Tories stand for.

“There are people right across this country of Scotland, right across the UK right now, who because of tourism policies are unable to keep their homes and feed their children.

“I grew up in the West of Scotland in the 1980s. There are people that I grew up with that are still living with the damage the Tories did then, and they’re doing it all over again.

“So will I apologise for saying that I don’t support and don’t much like the policies of the Conservative Party? No, I won’t. I have a duty as First Minister to stand up against those policies.”

Asked about Mr Findlay’s comment, she added: “I mean, that is utterly ludicrous and ridiculous. And actually, I think that is a deeply irresponsible comment.”

Scottish Tory constitution spokesman Donald Cameron said: “How Nicola Sturgeon can say with a straight face that ‘the best way to protect the partnership on which the UK was founded’ is to rip Scotland out of it, is astonishing. It’s incoherent nonsense.

“Her attempt to pin the blame for the divisions that exist in Scotland on those who oppose her self-serving independence obsession is laughable.

“It’s the SNP who created and continue to fuel division in Scotland and who try to stoke grievance with the rest of the UK at every turn.”