NICOLA Sturgeon is holding an unscheduled press conference in Bute House amid mounting troubles for her government and reports that she is to stand down.

The First Minister gave a statement at 11am and answered questions from the media at her official residence in Edinburgh.

It comes days after a poll found four in ten Scots want Ms Sturgeon to resign immediately.

Last month she said she had "plenty left in the tank" as she commented on Jacinda Ardern's decision to step down as Prime Minister of New Zealand.

The survey also found widespread public concern about the First Minister’s gender recognition reforms.

She also faces considerable dissent within the SNP about plans to use the next general election as a "de facto" independence referendum with a number of senior figures in the party warning her that the move could damage the cause of independence and weaken the party.

The de facto vote plan follows the Supreme Court defeat for her government over Holyrood holding a referendum without Westminster's consent.

There is also increasing concern from the business community and within the SNP's Holyrood group over the deposit return scheme and challenges over the crisis in the NHS and a failure to close the attainment gap in education.

The poll was conducted for The Sunday Times over the past week as a review for the Scottish Prison Service found that the process of admitting transgender people to prisons should be improved in the wake of the Isla Bryson case.

Bryson, who committed two rapes while identifying as a man, Adam Graham, was initially sent to the woman’s prison estate in segregation, fuelling claims that Sturgeon’s self-identification policy was a risk to women.

The weekend poll found that, among those who expressed a view, 76 per cent of voters believe the Scottish government’s plans to change the law on gender recognition would pose a safety risk in women-only spaces, such as prisons, hospital wards and changing rooms while some 24 per cent disagreed. A total of 21 per cent said they didn’t know.

On Sturgeon’s leadership, 45 per cent believed she should remain as First Minister at least until the next Holyrood election while 42 per cent thought she should stand down now and 13 per cent didn’t know.

The poll indicated that 15 per cent of those who voted SNP at the last Westminster election wanted her to resign, as did nearly one fifth (19 per cent) of those who voted for independence in the 2014 referendum. Some 76 per cent of SNP voters and 72 per cent of Yes voters wanted her to remain.

Ms Sturgeon’s continued support for gender recognition changes, allowing people as young as 16 to quickly change their legal gender, has alarmed some of her own senior colleagues. They fear it is overshadowing other priorities, including the cost of living crisis, problems in the NHS and the independence campaign.

A separate YouGov poll last week found that support for the SNP, for Sturgeon and for Scottish independence had fallen sharply.

Last month Ms Sturgeon said she is 'nowhere near' quitting as First Minister and has 'plenty left in the tank' to lead the SNP.

Scotland's longest-serving First Minister revealed she hopes to have the 'same courage' to resign in a similar way to Ms Ardern.

But asked about continuing to lead the independence campaign, Ms Sturgeon said she would 'like to think' she would still be in charge yet stressed the leader was less important than securing separation.

Ms Sturgeon has been in power at Holyrood since succeeding her estranged mentor Alex Salmond in November 2014, who quit in the wake of the referendum defeat.

Growing speculation had suggested that the SNP leader could be reaching the end stages of her premiership, having repeatedly been thwarted in her attempts to stage a re-run of the 2014 vote by the Supreme Court and mounting criticism of her domestic record.

Speaking to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, the First Minister revealed her admiration for Ms Ardern's dramatic resignation because she felt she no longer had 'enough in the tank'.

She also admitted she does sometimes question whether she has the motivation to carry on.

Speaking about Ms Ardern's shock resignation, the First Minister said: 'I've got plenty in the tank at the moment. But if I ever reach the point which she has clearly reached, where I just think overall I can't give the job everything it deserves, then I hope I have the same courage she has had in saying, "Okay, this is the point to go".

'But, just for the avoidance of all doubt, I don't feel anywhere near that right now. Nowhere near.'

Asked whether she believes she will achieve independence Miss Sturgeon replied: 'I would like to think so. I think Scotland is going to be independent.

'Nobody would believe me if I said, "No, I'd rather it was somebody else."

'But, for me, who the leader is that takes Scotland to independence is less important than that Scotland completes its journey to independence.'

The SNP leader, who has been an MSP since the creation of the Scottish parliament in 1999, would have been First Minister for 12 years if she remains in post for the 2026 Holyrood election.

At a Edinburgh Fringe shows last summer, she dismissed allegations she was 'not up for the fight any more' and her Supreme Court gamble was a wheeze to appease Nationalists.

She told the audience it was 'nonsense and wishful thinking' from opponents and said she was 'up for the challenge' of another referendum.

'It's not because I think Scotland is better than any other country; It's about self governance,' Ms Sturgeon said.

She added: 'The default position is: "Of course I'll fight the next election".'