SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has said the party is to focus on “protecting Scotland’s interests in Brexit” amid speculation Nicola Sturgeon may put plans for a second independence referendum on hold.

Blackford stressed the SNP remains “the party of Scottish independence” but added it had to “actually focus on the priorities which are there in front of us” such as working for the best deal when the UK leaves the European Union (EU).

Media reports over the weekend suggested the First Minister is to put plans for a second independence referendum on hold to instead focus on delivering a soft Brexit.

A spokesman for the First Minister insisted yesterday that such were “entirely speculative”.

On the Sunday Politics television programme Blackford said: “The SNP is the party of Scottish independence and will remain so but what we have to do is to actually focus on the priorities which are there in front of us today, it’s protecting Scotland’s interests in Brexit, making sure we can deliver an alternative to austerity.”

The First Minister set out her timetable for a second referendum in March, saying a vote should be held between autumn 2018 and spring 2019 to give Scots — the majority of whom voted to stay in the EU — an alternative to Brexit.

By that time, she argued, the Brexit deal would be clear enough to allow Scots to make an informed choice.

But she has been “reflecting” on another independence referendum after the snap General Election saw her party’s share of the vote fall from 50 per cent to 37 per cent as it lost 21 Westminster seats.

The issue was discussed at the Scottish Government cabinet meeting last week, with Sturgeon “likely” to set out her position before Holyrood goes into recess at the end of June.

Yesterday the Sunday Mail reported a senior SNP insider as saying that in the wake of the General Election — in which the Tories lost their overall majority at Westminster — “doing everything possible to help achieve a soft Brexit for the UK as a whole or Scotland is the priority”.

The insider added: “People can judge on the other side of the negotiations what they want to do about independence.”

A spokesman for Sturgeon said: “Reports in today’s newspapers are entirely speculative.

“We have always made clear our view that the people of Scotland should have a choice at the end of the Brexit process and the First Minister will set out her views on the way forward in the coming days.”

But Blackford said the SNP’s priority and a key part of his own job as Westminster leader was working to “get the best deal for Scotland out of Brexit”.

He said: “One of the things I think is important is if we’re going into the Brexit negotiations we need to wait and see what the outcome of that is.

“What we have continually said is that the people of Scotland — just like the members of any other European nation — should be able to have their say on the final outcome of Brexit.”

He added: “What I’m doing is concentrating on the job I have, along with my colleagues at Westminster, which is standing up for Scotland.

“It’s making sure we get the best deal for Scotland out of Brexit, challenging the Tories on austerity and, of course, the SNP is the party of independence.”

Scottish Conservative deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said: “Rather than kicking indyref2 into the long grass, Nicola Sturgeon needs to take the threat of a second independence referendum off the table altogether.”

James Kelly, Scottish Labour’s election campaign manager, said the SNP had not yet “cleared up confusion over the future of another independence referendum”.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said nationalists were “keeping the referendum on the table because for the SNP will always be independence first and foremost”.