SCOTTISH Secretary Alister Jack confirmed the UK Government has received Nicola Sturgeon's request for indyref2 during a stumbling turn at the despatch box for Scottish Questions.

However, Jack repeatedly rejected arguments for a fresh plebiscite in the Commons session.

Asked if Downing Street has received a request for a Section 30 Order, the Scottish Secretary said: “The Prime Minister has received the First Minister’s correspondence which contains the Scottish Government’s publication and will respond in due course.”

But Jack claimed that the SNP’s vote share in the December General Election is not sufficient to fuel calls for a second referendum.

Responding to a question from the SNP’s Chris Law, the Tory said: “Forty-five per cent of Scots voted for the SNP in the 2019 election and 45% of Scots voted for independence in 2014. The numbers simply haven’t changed.”

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Rookie MP Amy Callaghan pointed out the “blinding hypocrisy” underpinning the Tory argument against indyref2.

She said: “This Tory government is claiming that its 43% of the vote in the last General Election provides it with an overwhelming mandate to implement Brexit.

“Can the Secretary of State therefore explain the absolute blinding contradiction of his own position when he says the 45% vote for the SNP, providing 80% of Scottish seats in this very House, doesn’t equate to a mandate for the people of Scotland to choose our own future?”

Jack’s stumbling reply seemed to include a bizarre claim that Scots had voted to leave the European Union.

He said: “It was a referendum three years ago. We, we are speaking for the majority of Scots. The majority of Scots voted … voted to remain … the majority voted sorry to leave in 2016, to leave the European Union. We are absolutely respecting that decision, whereas the SNP are not respecting it and are wanting to the tear up the United Kingdom.”

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Airdrie and Shotts MP Neil Gray then asked what the UK Government’s “democratic case” was for “denying the people of Scotland their right to choose our future”.

He said: "His party enjoys 43% of the vote to deliver Brexit and yet denies the SNP its right to give the people of Scotland its say with the 45% of the vote in Scotland that we have secured."

The Scottish Secretary replied: "The First Minister has asked for the right to set referendums in the future, to decide the context of those.

"We are very clear about this. Constitutional matters are reserved and it would be completely wrong for us to hands those powers over to the Scottish Parliament because we would end up in a series of never-endums."