Ministers at Westminster have urged the SNP to ditch any plans for a second referendum on Scottish independence.

Scottish Office minister Lord Dunlop told peers at question time that the possibility of another referendum should be "taken off the table".

He warned that talk of a second referendum was damaging to both investment and the economy.

Labour former minister Lord Foulkes of Cumnock raised the issue, demanding: "If the first minister of Scotland accepts the Brexit referendum as binding she should also accept the Scottish referendum as binding.

"Will the UK Government make clear that we would not agree to another Scottish referendum in the foreseeable future?"

Lord Dunlop said the SNP had announced a "listening exercise" and added: "If they were listening the first thing they would do would be to take an 'indyref2', as it is know in Scotland, off the table.

"It's absolutely clear from all the recent opinion polls that the majority of Scots don't want it. Business doesn't want it either because they can see that it is damaging to investment and the economy.

"I totally agree that it should be taken off the table."

For Labour, Lord McAvoy said whatever the outcome of the Brexit negotiations there was "absolutely no justification for a divisive indyref2".

Lord Dunlop said that as Scotland approached the second anniversary of a "clear and decisive" referendum on independence, he did not believe the EU referendum provided a mandate for a second one north of the border.

"The UK Government is very clear there should not be another independence referendum and I think there are increasing voices in the SNP itself who are coming to that conclusion as well."