IAN Blackford has sought to deflect questions about a split in the SNP after a senior colleague broke ranks to publicly criticise a People’s Vote on Brexit.

Pete Wishart, the longest-serving Nationalist MP among the party’s 35-strong contingent at Westminster, warned that such a poll could present "all sorts of risks to a future independence referendum for nothing".

The Perth MP argued: “To say that we will sign up to a referendum without any guarantee that our Scottish national voice will be at least acknowledged is little more than an open invitation to have our national view ignored and disrespected all over again.

"By enthusiastically buying into this confirmatory vote for an EU referendum, we weaken our hand in resisting Unionist calls for a second vote on a successful indyref.

"And if they were successful in using this precedent against us, unreconciled Unionists would be working non-stop from the day after the referendum to ensure that a successful outcome would be overturned.

"Every apparatus of state would be deployed and they would ensure that the worst possible deal would be offered to the Scottish people in the hope that their Union could be rescued," he wrote in The National.

Mr Wishart said he considered it "very unlikely" a People's Vote would come to fruition but warned: “We could be presenting all sorts of risks to a future independence referendum for nothing."

The party leadership had initially appeared split on the People’s Vote issue with figures like Michael Russell, the Scottish Government’s Constitutional Relations Secretary, warming to the idea while Mr Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, was cool on it.

However, it seems once Nicola Sturgeon was persuaded of the arguments, the party leadership rallied behind the People’s Vote campaign. Last month, the First Minister delivered a video message to a large People’s Vote rally in London while her colleague Joanna Cherry spoke at the event.

Last week, Mr Blackford made clear that if MPs rejected a take-it-or-leave-it Brexit deal put forward by Theresa May, then the SNP would push for a Commons motion to back a People’s Vote.

When quizzed about Mr Wishart’s rebellion, the party leader declared: "I'm going to focus on the job in hand. I am going to make sure everything I do over the course of the next few weeks is to make sure we do the least damage to the people and the economy of Scotland and that's about staying in single market and customs union."

Asked whether Mr Wishart was damaging the SNP, the party leader replied: "I've made my point clear about what's important for me and for the Group and I'm going to leave it at that."

He stressed how the SNP “has been, remains and will be remarkably united as a political force at Westminster and elsewhere".

Asked if he was worried that other MPs might defy the leadership line on a People’s Vote, the Highland MP said: "I'm content we have a very clear position and that's the one we will move forward with."

Asked if all SNP MPs would vote for a second EU referendum, Mr Blackford replied: "I'm going to leave it at that," insisting that his leadership of the Westminster Group was "not in any question".

Later, an SNP spokesman said: "We have made it clear that we would push strongly for any second EU referendum to have safeguards to ensure Scotland's voice is protected in the event of Scotland voting remain again while the UK as a whole voted to leave.

"Scotland's overwhelming vote to remain in 2016 - by far the most decisive vote of any of the UK nations - has been completely ignored, which underlines how Westminster completely fails to represent or protect Scotland's vital national interests."

Labour’s Ian Murray, who supports a People's Vote, said: "We are inching towards a parliamentary majority for a People's Vote, so this raises questions about how Pete Wishart and other SNP MPs will vote in the Commons."

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Tavish Scott said: "The First Minister said SNP support for a People's Vote was ‘unequivocal’. Her colleagues ought to be backing the campaign, not throwing up more roadblocks."