Nicola Sturgeon's SNP conference speech: 'Independence referendum must happen next year'

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has said a second referendum on Scottish independence "must happen next year".

Addressing the SNP conference in Aberdeen, Ms Sturgeon confirmed that she will ask the UK government for formal consent by the end of this year.

She said Brexit was a "disaster" and her party's MPs would never back leaving the EU, either with no deal or with the deal Prime Minister Boris Johnson has proposed.

In a speech that was strongly critical of the prime minister and his government, she said she was "utterly sick" of Westminster and the "broken political system".