The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats has said his party will not support indyref2 “at any point”.
However, Willie Rennie dodged the question of whether an outright victory for the SNP next year would give Nicola Sturgeon a mandate for another referendum.
Indyref2 is shaping up to be one of the top issues next year and opinion polls have shown support for independence at over 50%.
Senior figures in pro-UK parties are alarmed at rising support for independence and many Tories want Boris Johnson to rule out indyref2, even if the SNP win the election.
Others Unionists believe the opposition towards indyref2 is a campaigning position and will inevitably change after the election.
Rennie, who has led his party since 2011, has repeated his implacable opposition to another vote:
“We are not in favour of another independence referendum. We will be arguing every step of the way to make sure that doesn’t happen. We will not vote for it in the next Parliament, no matter how many MSPs we’ve got.”
Asked whether the SNP would have a mandate if they won a majority, he replied:
"If people want to make sure that we don’t plunge ourselves into...years long debate into these issues, the easiest way to do it is just to not support parties who are in favour of another independence referendum. That’s the best way of doing it.
“And it can avoid all these debates and discussions about whether there is a right to have another referendum.
“Let’s not get into that space.”
Pressed on whether the SNP would have a mandate, Rennie said:
“We won’t support it. And we’ve made that clear before. We’ve never been in the position of being able to support these things.”
He added: “We are not prepared to support it at any point."
SNP MP Angus MacNeil tweeted: "Libs now pro Brexit and anti independence ...at least it is clear now."
