ANGUS MacNeil has written to Boris Johnson asking him to say whether he will grant a Section 30 for Holyrood to stage a new independence referendum.

The SNP MP penned his letter to the Prime Minister last night – two years after making the same request to his predecessor Theresa May.

MacNeil’s intervention comes a day after the SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said plans must be made for a new vote in 2021.

MacNeil told Johnson that a consistent majority of people in Scotland were now in favour of independence.

He asked him to say whether he would grant the Section 30 order should there be an independence majority in Holyrood following next May’s election.

The Western Isles MP then added that should Johnson not grant the request, would he instead support an approach – once backed by former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher – that a majority of independence-supporting Scottish MPs would constitute a mandate for independence.

“With the polls as they are in Scotland, the Scottish Government has to respond to the will of its people.

READ MORE: Why are we letting the Unionists dictate to us what constitutes a mandate?

“The preferred route of the Scottish Government is a referendum through a Section 30 order under the Scotland Act 1998, which requires you to interact and agree that Scotland is a nation respected in the United Kingdom,” wrote MacNeil.

“Could you lay out now, in timely fashion, whether you intend to cooperate with the Scottish Government’s request for a Section 30 order, respecting any democratic majority achieved in the Scottish Parliament post the May 2021 Scottish elections, and within a timescale that the Scottish Government, through the Scottish Parliament, might request.

“If, however, you are not minded to agree to a Section 30 order for a referendum, would you either be ignoring the democratic will of the people at the ballot box, if such a will was expressed, or instead would you be taking the ‘Margaret Thatcher view’?

“Namely that if there was a majority of independence-supporting MSPs elected to the Scottish Parliament, then that itself would be a mandate for Scottish independence, without the need for a confirmatory referendum?”

He added: “I look forward to hearing from you on your thinking regarding Scotland deciding its constitutional future, and I remind you of Charles Stewart Parnell’s wise words when he said ‘No man has a right to say to his country thus far shalt thou go and no further’ – these are wise words for a statesman of any century. I hope you will be respectful of them. I look forward to your reply.”

The development comes as Scots prepare for a possible No-Deal Brexit in less than six weeks with talks failing to reach an agreement.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she will publish a referendum bill in the current Holyrood term setting out the timing and question for a new vote.