There will be a second independence referendum, Nicola Sturgeon has insisted.

The First Minister told the SNP conference in Aberdeen that the will of the Scottish Parliament “must and will prevail”.

She said responding to the Prime Minister saying “now is not the time” and the Tories saying they would reject any request that it was not for the UK Government in London to decide.

She invoked the words of the late Canon Kenyon Wright and his answer to what do you say when the other voice says “we say no and we are the state?”

Ms Sturgeon said: “His answer to that question, so relevant today, was this.

“Well we say yes and we are the people”

Ms Sturgeon repeated her intention to ask the Scottish Parliament within days to vote on the issue.

She said she would set out what the plan is.

She said After the terms of Brexit are clear but while there is still an opportunity to change course, the people of Scotland will have a choice. “There will be a referendum”

She said the UK Government had choose to “dig its heels in” instead of meeting the Scottish Government half way or she added “any of the way”.

She said if Theresa May adopts the same approach to the Brexit talks with the EU member states showing “he same condescension and inflexibility, the same tin ear” then she said “the brexit talks will hit the rocks”.

She that that refusal to budge was what forced her into making a decision.

She said she could have allowed it to drift until it is too late or make a plan for the future.

She said: “I chose to put the people in charge.”

Ms Sturgeon spoke to a packed conference hall in Aberdeen in front of around 1500 SNP members and delegates.

She also said that an independent Scotland would be open and welcoming to immigrants and refugees.

Ms Sturgeon criticised the UK Government for turning its back on child refugees it had previously promised to accept under the Dubs amendment.

She issued an invitation to people in other parts of the UK if they are not happy with the Tories immigration policies to come to Scotland.

She said: “Scotland is not full up. If you are as appalled as we are at the path the Westminster government is taking come and join us. Come here to live, work, invest or study.

“Come to Scotland and be part of building a modern, progressive, outward looking compassionate country.”

Pay rise pledge

Workers in private nurseries delivering the Scottish Government’s free childcare pledge will be paid the Living Wage, Ms Sturgeon added.

She said thousands of staff would benefit from a pay rise that will bring them in line with staff in public sector council run nurseries.

She said that thousnds more people are needed to work in nurseries to deliver the pledge to increase the number of hours of free childcare.

She said in public sector nurseries, staff already receive the Living Wage. But there are currently around 1000 private nurseries helping to deliver our free childcare policy and currently around 80% of the childcare staff who work in them don’t earn the Living Wage. That’s 8000 people in total.”

Ms Sturgeon said that the Scottish Government would invest £50m by the 2021 to ensure they are all paid the Living Wage currently at £8.45 an hour.

The Living wage campaign figure is higher than the UK Government living wage of £7.20 per hour.