FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon has conceded that talk of a second independence referendum was clearly a factor in the SNP’s poor General Election result.

Speaking yesterday at Bute House, Sturgeon hinted that the Scottish Government’s push to have another vote on independence in the wake of Brexit would be taken off the table.

“As we do after all elections we will reflect on these results,” she said. “We will listen to voters and we will consider very carefully the best way forward for Scotland, a way forward that is in the best interests of all of Scotland.”

Sturgeon promised to say more about what that might mean in “the days to come”.

Earlier in the day, the Scottish Tory, Labour and LibDem leaders had all called for the SNP to formally drop the plans.

“Undoubtedly the issue of an independence referendum was a factor in this election result, but I think there were other factors as well,” Sturgeon conceded when questioned by journalists on why she thought her party had lost 21 seats.

“I said I’m going to reflect carefully on the result and going to take some time to do that,” she added. “I have now gone 36 hours without sleep and I don’t think those are the conditions to rush to judgments or decisions.”

The SNP won 978,000 votes, the other three major parties combined had a total of 1.7 million. A reporter asked her if that result showed that the anti-independence vote was in the majority. She said that interpretation “had a degree of force in it”.

Sturgeon suggested Brexit, the Corbyn surge, and tactical voting were other key factors in the result. “I strongly suspect there were independence supporters amongst those who voted for Jeremy Corbyn,” she said, before stressing that “rushing to overly-simplistic judgments” about the election was “not the right thing to do”.

The SNP saw a 13 per cent drop in its share of the vote, down to 37 per cent, while the Tories’ total went from 14 per cent to 29 per cent. Labour were up from 24 to 27 per cent.

The First Minister said the SNP’s 35 MPs would seek to build a progressive alliance with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party, especially if it could stop Theresa May from forming a minority Tory Government.

The Prime Minister had now “lost all authority and credibility”, Sturgeon said.

The result had shown “that the reckless Tory pursuit of a hard Brexit must be abandoned.

“The clock on the Article 50 negotiations is ticking. It is no longer acceptable to proceed without a coherent plan.”

Sturgeon also paid fulsome tribute to Alex Salmond, her “friend and mentor for almost 30 years”, who lost his Gordon seat to the Tories.

She said Salmond was “without a shadow of a doubt the giant of modern Scottish politics — someone who has devoted his life to serving this country.”

The SNP leader also paid tribute to her depute, Angus Robertson, calling him a “politician and parliamentarian of immense stature, who week after week held the Prime Minister to account, providing the scrutiny that the official opposition in the House of Commons failed to do”.

A jubilant Ruth Davidson described the First Minister’s plans for a second independence referendum as “a massive political miscalculation”.

“We have heard the First Minister say she will ‘reflect’ on the matter. I’m afraid that’s not enough.”

She added: “Nobody will condemn the First Minister if she now decides to re-set her course.”

Davidson also used her speech, and the new strength and influence she has in the Tory party after Thursday’s result, to call for an “open Brexit, not a closed one, which puts our country’s economic growth first”.

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said the Prime Minister should resign following the General Election result.

She claimed May was making a “grave mistake” in trying to form a government and Labour should be given the opportunity to form a minority administration.

Dugdale said: “We’re only in this situation where we’ve had a General Election because the Prime Minister went to the country seeking a majority for Brexit — she has failed to get that. She has to resign. I think the Prime Minister is making a grave mistake in ploughing ahead in seeking to form a government.

“She only called this election seeking a majority. She should resign and Labour should be given the opportunity to form a minority government.”

On the issue of Scottish independence, Dugdale said Sturgeon should recognise Scots have shown they do not want another vote.

She said: “I think there’s only one thing she can hear from the results overnight and that’s that Scotland rejects her plans for a second independence referendum.

“The one thing I would ask her to do is to shelve her plans for a second independence referendum.

“That’s my priority because I think that’s in Scotland’s interests first and foremost.”

Scottish Labour won seven seats, including Edinburgh South where Ian Murray increased his majority to more than 15,500.

The party also picked up seats in Glasgow, Rutherglen, Kirkcaldy and in Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill, Midlothian and East Lothian.