Boris Johnson won't grant Scotland a new referendum on independence before the next general election in 2024, Michael Gove has said.
The Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster said the Tory Prime Minister's focus was on recovering from the covid pandemic "for the lifetime of this parliament".
Gove, who is responsible for countering the push for indyref2, has went further than any UK Government minister before in stating that it is the wrong time to hold a vote.
Under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, which was brought in during the Tory/Lib Dems coalition, the next Westminster election would not take place until May 2024.
Rumours have circulated that Johnson would like to repel the act so he can go to the country again before 2024.
Asked in an interview with The Daily Telegraph whether there was "any circumstance" in which the PM would approve a referendum before a May 2024 election, Gove said: "I don't think so."
Asked whether his position was that "there will be no referendum before the 2024 election", he replied: "I can't see it."
After pro-independence parties won a majority in the elections to the Scottish Parliament in May, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it was "a matter of when, not if" there would be a second referendum.
Gove's intervention may heighten the chances that the SNP could try to hold a unilateral referendum without the approval of Westminster, which would almost certainly result in a legal battle through the courts.
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He insisted that it was "foolish" to talk about a referendum at a time when the country was still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.
"The Prime Minister is completely focused on making sure that, for the lifetime of this parliament, we increase economic opportunity, we provide people with the chance to make more of their lives, take control of their futures. And that's quite rightly what the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom's focus should be," he said.
"It seems to me to be at best reckless, at worst folly, to try to move the conversation on to constitutional division when people expect us to be working together in order to deal with these challenges."
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