SCOTTISH SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon ruled out a second independence referendum without permission from Downing Street today — but her deputy suggested it was a possibility.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt stated that the Tory government in Westminster will not grant permission for a public vote.

He spoke out after it emerged that SNP deputy leader Keith Brown told a gathering of separatist activists last month that the SNP should not “be willing to anticipate a refusal of a Section 30 order as a reason not to call a referendum.”

A referendum can only have a legal basis if Downing Street provides an order under Section 30 of the Scotland Act.

Mr Brown told a meeting of the Aberdeen Independence Movement on February 24: “If we want to have a referendum, then we decide we’re going to have a referendum.”

But asked today if she would call a referendum without a Section 30 order, First Minister Ms Sturgeon told reporters: “No — I am not open to that possibility.”

And Mr Brown tweeted today that he in fact meant Westminster’s refusal “should not prevent the Scottish government seeking one and planning on the basis of winning that case.”

At First Minister’s Questions, Ms Sturgeon also faced scrutiny over her plans for an independent Scotland to keep the pound for a transition period before moving to a new currency.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said doing this without establishing a central bank would mean an “immediate, minimum price tag” of £40 billion, which could only result in “turbo-charged austerity.”

Ms Sturgeon replied: “The position of Labour and the Tories on these questions is utterly ridiculous. Remember in 2014 they told us an independent Scotland couldn’t use sterling in a currency union.

“Now they tell us we cannot use sterling without a currency union, and we can’t have our own currency. Scotland must be the only country in the entire world that couldn’t have any currency.”

The FM was also pressed by Labour’s Alex Rowley over new troubles at the Burntisland Fabrication yards, which manufacture infrastructure for renewable energy. The yards were saved from closure in 2017 after they were occupied by workers.