Nicola Sturgeon: Boris Johnson has no mandate to take Scotland out of EU

Nicola Sturgeon has said the SNP's emphatic election victory north of the Border is proof that Scotland does not want Brexit or Boris Johnson as prime minister.

Speaking in Glasgow on another historic night for her party, the First Minister said Scots had emphatically rejected the Conservatives and strengthened the mandate to hold a second referendum on independence.

The Nationalists made a clean sweep of constituencies in Glasgow as well making significant gains across the country - including Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson's seat in East Dunbartonshire.

"I readily accept that not everyone who voted SNP supports independence necessarily, but there is a clear endorsement that Scotland should not be landed with a Boris Johnson government and ripped out of Europe against our will - and that mandate has to be respected.

"I'm bitterly disappointed at the result UK-wide. I think Tory governments are bad for the UK.

"I know they are bad for Scotland, and I really want the UK to be in the EU. But I've got to accept that England appears to have voted in a particular way, they appear to have voted to endorse the UK leaving the EU. So Boris Johnson may have a mandate to take England out of the EU - but he emphatically does not have a mandate to take Scotland out of the EU.

"Scotland must have a choice over its own future. It can't be any clearer that Scotland does not want five years of Boris Johnson government and doesn't want to lose its status as a European nation. This is about choice. It's about saying it's not for Boris Johnson to decide Scotland's future. It's for the people of Scotland to decide it."