Nicola Sturgeon has insisted there is a "democratic mandate" for Scots to be given a choice of staying in the UK with Boris Johnson - or becoming an independent nation.
The SNP leader and Scottish First Minister said following last week's election victory where her party took 47 of the 59 Scottish seats in Westminster, the case for having a second independence referendum was "unarguable".
It comes with a new document, published today, which outlines the democratic case for Scotland having the ability to choose its own constitutional future.
The paper – entitled “Scotland’s Right to Choose: Putting Scotland’s Future in Scotland’s Hands” – lays out the detailed case for how and why the country should be able to have the choice of independence in a referendum.
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The document includes a specific call on the UK Government to “enter discussions about the Scottish Government’s mandate for giving the people of Scotland a choice, and to agree legislation with the Scottish Government that would put beyond doubt the Scottish Parliament’s right to legislate for a referendum on independence.”
Speaking at Bute House, her official residence in Edinburgh, Sturgeon said: "The alternative is a future that we have rejected being imposed upon us.
"Scotland made it very clear last week it does not want a Tory government led by Boris Johnson taking us out of the European Union.
"That is the future we face if we do not have the opportunity to consider the alternative of independence."
The Prime Minister has repeatedly made clear his opposition to Scotland having a second independence referendum.
The mandate we have, to offer the Scottish people a choice over their future, is by any normal standard of democracy, unarguable
Sturgeon insisted: "It is a fundamental democratic principle that decisions on Scotland's constitutional future should rest with the people who live here.
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"As this document lays out, the Scottish Government has a clear democratic mandate to offer people a choice on that future in an independence referendum, and the UK Government has a democratic duty to recognise that. Last week's general election has only strengthened that mandate."
The SNP won 47 of the 59 seats up for grabs in Scotland, the party's second-best ever result.
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Responding to Sturgeon’s speech on a Section 30 order, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said: “The Scottish Parliament has already voted to seek a section 30 order, and if Nicola Sturgeon feels the need to bring another vote to Holyrood, the Scottish Greens will back it again.
“If Boris Johnson ignores that mandate, as he is threatening to do, it will only strengthen the case for Scotland to break ties with a flawed democracy that denies us a say over our future. His reckless Brexit cuts our ties with Europe, rips up workers rights and environmental protections and pursues a right wing race to the bottom in order to get a US trade deal.
“It’s only right that Scotland gets the option to decide a different future during the transition period.”
Meanwhile the Tories, whose campaign had focused on opposition to an independence referendum, saw their share of the vote slip in Scotland, losing more than half their seats.
In the wake of that, Sturgeon said she was "publishing the constitutional and democratic case" for a referendum.
She said this was "rooted in the principle of self-determination, in the material change of circumstances since the 2014 exercise of that right, and in the democratic mandate that exists for offering the choice afresh".
Sturgeon insisted: "The mandate we have, to offer the Scottish people a choice over their future, is by any normal standard of democracy, unarguable."
And she added: "We are therefore today calling for the UK Government to negotiate and agree the transfer of power that would put beyond doubt the Scottish Parliament's right to legislate for a referendum on independence.
"Together with the constitutional and democratic case for that transfer of power, we are also publishing the draft legislation that would give effect to it."
She conceded she expected the response from Westminster would be a "restatement of the UK Government's opposition".
But she continued: "They should be under no illusion that this will be an end of the matter.
"In this context, the question is often posed to me - 'what will you do if the Prime Minister says no?'
"But the document we are publishing today turns the question on its head.
"It is for the Prime Minister to defend why he believes the UK is not a voluntary union of equal nations. It is for him to set out why he does not believe people in Scotland have the right to self-determination.
"And it is for the Prime Minister to explain why he believes it is acceptable to ignore election after election in Scotland and to over-ride a democratic mandate stronger than the one he claims for his Brexit deal."
She added: "We live in a democracy, and ultimately democracy must and will prevail."
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