BRITAIN will have to adapt to a new political reality, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told an influential Washington think tank on the final day of her successful American visit.

Addressing the Council on Foreign Relations in the final engagement of her four-day tour, Sturgeon said that one-size-fits-all government no longer worked for the UK.

The referendum on independence, the First Minister said, had made Scotland “one of the most politically engaged countries in the world”. She told the audience that turnout at the last election was five per cent higher in Scotland than in the rest of the UK.

She explained that the Conservatives had won the General Election only because they had won in England.

The first minister told the audience: “When a government is achieved only by winning seats in one of the four nations of the UK - what kind of mandate is that?

“The Conservative Party has the right to form the Government of the UK. But it was not the biggest party in three of the four nations of the UK – far from it - and so the legitimacy of its actions in those other nations comes very clearly into focus.”

She added: “Here in the USA, you’re used to the idea of 50 different state governments making very different choices about very significant issues. But that’s not something the UK governments are used to – for much of the last century, it’s been a remarkably centralised state. And it’s now increasingly clear that for the UK as a whole, one size doesn’t fit all. And a one size fits all approach will not fit the bill for the future.”

In her speech the First Minister warned that the UK was “perilously” close to leaving the EU. Fewer than two per cent of Scots who voted in the General Election backed those parties which want to leave the EU, she added, and pointed to a poll suggesting that 72 per cent of people in Scotland are in favour of the UK remaining in.

“There’s overwhelming support, or so it seems, for European Union membership in the Westminster parliament, and yet here we are in the United Kingdom standing perilously to the exit door of the EU.”

Earlier, Sturgeon had met IMF director Christine Lagarde to discuss women in the economy.

The First Minister was accompanied by the chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, Lena Wilson, and the Scottish Government’s chief economist Gary Gillespie.

Following the meeting, a Scottish Government spokesman said:

“The First Minister had a productive discussion with Christine Lagarde on the current position of the Scottish economy and the Scottish Government’s approach to increasing competitiveness and tackling inequality.

“The First Minister and Ms Lagarde also discussed the shared interest between Scotland and the IMF in increasing female participation in the economy and improving the representation of women at all levels in business.”

Lagarde was recently ranked as the sixth most powerful woman in the world and has been with the IMF since 2011.