Rishi Sunak insisted the people of Scotland wanted ministers to focus on the “most pressing” issues as he was warned that denying another referendum would only push up support for independence.

The Prime Minister was challenged by the SNP’s Pete Wishart about the legislation needed to allow a second referendum following the Supreme Court’s ruling on the issue in November.

Mr Sunak said: “We will respect the decision of the Supreme Court and will continue to focus on delivering for the people of Scotland and working constructively with the Scottish Government to do that.”

The Supreme Court ruled the Scottish Parliament cannot legislate for another independence vote without express consent from Westminster.

At the Commons Liaison Committee, Mr Sunak said: “My belief is that the Scottish people would like their governments – both the Scottish Government and the UK Government – to focus on the issues that are most  pressing at the moment, given the scale of the challenges that we face.

“I have been clear that  I want to do that in a constructive manner. I want to work in partnership  with the Scottish Government where we can and I think we can make a difference to people’s lives.”

But Mr Wishart claimed there was an opinion poll trend in favour of backing the break-up of the union and “if there was an independence referendum tomorrow I think there would be a very good chance that Scottish independence would win”.

He told Mr Sunak: “At some point you will have to sit down and deal with that. Why don’t you just deal with that just now?

“Why don’t you bring forward the necessary change in legislation so we could do this, because the other option, surely, is support for independence is going to go up and at some point, you’re gonna have to address this.”

The Prime Minister told him: “What I’m focused on is actually making a difference to the lives of people in Scotland.

“The challenges they face, first and foremost, are with the cost of living and the impact that’s having. I want to do everything I can to try and alleviate some of those burdens, and provide opportunity and jobs for them.”