NICOLA Sturgeon has called for a General Election before Christmas in a joint press conference in Westminster with the First Minister of Wales.

The First Minister said: "I want to see a General Election. I would be very happy to see that General Election before Christmas, but the circumstances of that have to be such that it doesn't open the risk of a No-Deal Brexit.

"I think all responsible opposition MPs who want to see an election have a duty to make sure that that is the case."

She added: "I think voters want to see a way out of this and certainly voters in Scotland do."

Sturgeon said the extension "should not just be long enough to scrutinise a bad Bill for a week or two longer".

She added: "It should, in my view, be long enough to allow a General Election or a referendum, or, perhaps more realistically, the former leading to the latter.

"That seems to me to be the only route out of this mess for the UK."

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Her Welsh counterpart Mark Drakeford said he wants a General Election but that he does not think "a position of complete clarity" has been reached.

Sturgeon said of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill: "This is quite simply a bad deal and a bad Bill. It is bad for Scotland, bad for Wales and bad for the UK.

"Indeed, the uniqueness of this event, the first ministers of Wales and Scotland, of different political persuasions, uniting in opposition to this deal is in itself a signal of how bad we believe it to be."

She added: "So, as Welsh Assembly members made clear yesterday, and as I expect members of the Scottish Parliament will also make clear, we do not consent to the EU Withdrawal Bill.

"When that happens, of course, it will be the first time in the history of devolution that both Scotland and Wales will have refused to give legislative consent to a Bill that affects us both.

"The question for the Prime Minister is this – how will he respond to that? And the answer to that for Scotland will have long-term consequences."

Watch her full speech here: