NICOLA Sturgeon said Tory MSPs were "getting very twitchy" in the Holyrood chamber when she restated her intention to hold a second independence referendum by the end of 2023.

The First Minister made the remark as she answered a question on what assessment the Scottish Government had made of the economic impact on Scotland of Brexit. 

She replied that her administration had estimated that Brexit could cut Scotland’s GDP by around 6.1% by 2030, compared to continued EU membership - the equivalent to £9 billion in 2016 cash terms.

She also pointed to labour shortages as a result of EU workers leaving Scotland post Brexit and the difficulties that was already causing in some industry sectors.

The National:

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross at First Minister's Questions

She was then pressed by Scottish Green MSP Gillian Mackay on whether she would reaffirm her intention to hold a second independence referendum amid the unfolding of the post-Brexit situation with "soaring energy prices and forecourts running dry" and labour shortages from "care to haulage". 

Mackay asked if it was still her commitment to offer "the people of Scotland a way out of Boris Johnson’s Brexit Britain" with a referendum on Scotland’s future, before the end of this session of Parliament.

"It was interesting that, as Gillian Mackay was asking that very pertinent question, the Tories were getting very twitchy," Sturgeon said.

READ MORE: FMQs: Nicola Sturgeon tells Douglas Ross to 'get off his phone'

"They do not like to hear or to listen to the reality of the damage that their policies are doing to people the length and breadth of Scotland. They will not be able to hide from that damage in the weeks and months to come," she said.

"Regarding immigration, in the run-up to the Brexit referendum and since, the Conservatives have given the impression that people from other countries are not welcome to work here.

"Now, they want people to come here for three months to help the UK Government out of its self-imposed crisis, only to send them back again on Christmas eve. That is absolutely disgraceful."

She continued: "Across a range of issues today, we have heard the power of the argument for this country to be independent, so that we can take such decisions ourselves and are no longer dependent on the decisions of a UK Government, and so that we can respond to the needs of people throughout this country here, in the democratically elected Parliament of our nation.

"I continue to believe, and intend, that that will be the case and that people across the country will have the opportunity to choose independence in a referendum within this session of Parliament and, I hope, within the first half of the session."