NICOLA Sturgeon has said her mandate for indyref2 has been renewed, refreshed and strengthened by the SNP’s victory in the General Election. 

With all 59 of Scotland's seats declared by 6am, the SNP had won 48, the Tories took six, the Lib Dems won four, and Labour one.

Suspended SNP candidate Neale Hanvey will become an independent MP after winning in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.  

Across the country, the SNP won around 45% of the vote.

Though it was a disappointing result for the Tories in Scotland, they cleaned up in the rest of the UK.

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Boris Johnson now has a substantial majority in the Commons, giving him the numbers to get his Brexit deal through Parliament. 

Speaking to the BBC, the First Minister said the result had exceeded her expectations, she said it was a “clear endorsement of the SNP's message”. 

“Scotland couldn't be clearer that we don't want a Boris Johnson government, we don't want Brexit and we want Scotland's future to be in Scotland's hands not dictated to us by Boris Johnson’s conservatives.”

Sturgeon said she “reluctantly” accepted that Johnson had “a mandate to take England out of the European Union,” but, she added, “he does not have a mandate to take Scotland out of the European Union.”

The First Minister added: “And I have a mandate, a renewed, refreshed, strengthened, mandate to offer people in Scotland the choice of a different future. 

“Now it's then up to the people in Scotland what choice they make. I don’t pretend that everybody who voted SNP yesterday will necessarily support independence but there is a clear endorsement that Scotland should get to decide our future and not have it decided for us.”

Asked if she would still be writing to the Prime Minister before Christmas to request a Section 30 order to allow Holyrood to hold a legally watertight referendum, the SNP leader said that was still her proposal. 

"I put forward a plan. That plan has been endorsed. The Scottish Conservatives opposition to that plan has been roundly rejected.“

She added: “It's not me that should be thinking of a plan B because my plan A has won the election.”. 

The SNP gained seats from Labour, the Tories and LibDems, including in East Lothian, where the former Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill defeated Labour to be returned as the new MP for the area.

The SNP ousted Tories Kirstene Hair in Angus and Paul Masterton in East Renfrewshire, as well as defeating Labour's Danielle Rowley in Midlothian and Ged Killen in Rutherglen and Hamilton West.

In Perth and North Perthshire, the SNP's Pete Wishart increased his majority from 21 to 7,550.

But the party's most audacious vistory was in East Dunbartonshire where Amy Callaghan unseated Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson. 

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack was one of the Tories who held on. He said the Prime Minister should not grant the Section 30 order. 

“We've said it was once-in-a-generation and that generation isn't past yet, and I would still maintain more people who will have cast votes in Scotland tonight for unionist parties than will have cast votes for the SNP."

Jack beat SNP challenger Richard Arkless by 1,805 votes, down from the 5,643 majority he had in 2017.

Jack's predecessor as Scottish Secretary, David Mundell, held on to the neighbouring constituency of Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, but also with a reduced majority.

In his speech Mundell said he "does not regard tonight's vote as any change to the mandate for having another independence referendum".