NICOLA Sturgeon believes the Supreme Court defeat has “galvanised” the Yes movement as she will accuse unionist parties of being “joined at the hip”.

The First Minister, speaking at the SNP’s annual St Andrew’s Day dinner in Glasgow tonight, will claim that despite the major set-back to the independence movement by losing her court bid, the blow had rejuvenated the Yes movement.

The Scottish Government had taken its plans for Holyrood to legislate its own referendum to the UK Supreme Court, but judges determined the plans fall outwith devolved powers.

Instead, Ms Sturgeon is to press ahead with her back-up plan of using the next UK general election as a ‘de facto’ referendum on independence.

The First Minister is expected to say: “Wednesday’s judgment from the Supreme Court has galvanised the Yes movement right across Scotland.

“Thousands of people took to the streets – in freezing Scottish winter weather – to demonstrate their support for Scottish democracy.

“Because for people in Scotland, the outcome means this: the myth that the United Kingdom is a voluntary Union of nations has been comprehensively – and permanently – shattered because of the behaviour of the Westminster parties. The so-called partnership of equals is anything but.”

She will add: “Tory, Labour, Lib Dem – they’re all joined at the hip. They now have to defend the indefensible.

“If they thought that this outcome would be helpful to them, they have made a catastrophic miscalculation.

“The inconvenient truth for Westminster is that much as they would prefer otherwise, the Scottish independence movement is not going away. Indeed, it is growing. It is strengthening. And it is winning. Because it is now as much a democracy movement as an independence movement.”

The First Minister will stress that the court defeat has sparked “the week the campaign for independence changed”.

She will add: “Firstly we are defending a universal, basic right – the right to make a democratic choice.

“Secondly the idea of the UK has been shown to have changed from a voluntary union to a Westminster control system.

“Those two factors give us the opportunity to reach out as never before to those not yet persuaded. Because I am convinced the vast majority of people in Scotland believe in the right of people to live here to choose their own future.

“And the vast majority believe in the idea of equal partnership with our friends in the rest of the UK – a partnership it is now crystal clear can only be achieved through independence.”

Donald Cameron, Scottish Conservative shadow constitution secretary, said: “People will be dismayed that Nicola Sturgeon is doubling down on the nationalists’ obsession, rather than getting back to the day job and tackling the urgent concerns of most Scots.

“The inconvenient truth for her is that the Scottish public don’t want independence – and have already rejected it. They certainly don’t want another divisive referendum that the court has ruled out, when the SNP Government should be focused on helping them through the global cost-of-living crisis.

“Nicola Sturgeon is stuck in a nationalist echo chamber, pandering to the minority, and oblivious to the concerns of the outside world.”