NICOLA Sturgeon will next week give an update on her plans to hold a second independence later this year, her spokesman has said.

The First Minister said last Tuesday she would set out her "next steps" by the end of the month following Boris Johnson's rejection of her request to devolve powers to Holyrood to hold a legally binding voter.

This afternoon her spokesman told journalists it was still her intention to have a vote this year as "that is what people voted for".

Asked whether she was still planning to hold a referendum this year after former SNP depute leader Angus Robertson suggested activists switch their focus to winning a majority in the Scottish Parliament elections next year, the spokesman said: "We are committed to what was put forward in the most recent election manifesto weeks ago. That's what people voted for and it is incumbent on us to try to deliver what people have voted for."

READ MORE: Angus Robertson: Freedom is coming... it’s time Tories accept it

Writing in Saturday’s The National, Robertson said: “Hard as it is to endure given the repeated electoral mandates for an independence referendum, the reality is that the issue of indyref2 will be decided in the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections.

“With a majority of pro-independence MSPs, it will be impossible to oppose Scottish democracy.”