A senior SNP MP has broken ranks with Nicola Sturgeon and called on her to drop the call for a People’s Vote on Brexit and instead put the case for a fresh vote on Scottish independence to the "fore".

Angus Brendan MacNeil, who represents Na-h-Eileanan an Iar, made his plea in the wake of Alex Salmond’s insistence that the First Minister should put an end to the "uncivil war" raging within SNP ranks and focus on making the case for Scotland leaving the UK.

At the weekend, the former First Minister told his successor that with Theresa May struggling to get her Brexit plans through the Commons, there was "not likely to be a better time to force the issue" on independence.

Mr MacNeil, who chairs the Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee, retweeted the findings of a poll, which showed the majority of Britons[56 to 44 per cent] were opposed to a second Brexit referendum, which is now the SNP leadership’s primary goal on Brexit.

Mr MacNeil tweeted: "Oh well @theSNP you tried but #EuroRef2 not wanted...So now it is the referendum with the mandate #Indyref2 to come to fore...Change in media strategy now?"

The SNP won the 2016 Holyrood election, calling for a fresh vote on independence if there was a material change in circumstances from the 2014 referendum, making clear this would be the case if Scotland was dragged out of the EU against Scotland’s wishes.

The SNP leadership has stalled on the timing of calling for a second independence poll with Ms Sturgeon, saying last week it would be a "matter of weeks" before she made a final decision. The Prime Minister has repeatedly made clear she would not facilitate another referendum this side of the 2022 General Election.

Last week, Keith Brown, the party’s deputy leader, said it had become “increasingly clear the only way Scotland’s interests can be protected and our democratic decisions respected is through independence”.

Yet the Nationalists are suffering their own internal strife in the wake of the Salmond row with the FM facing questions following her predecessor’s legal victory against the Scottish Government when the Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled as “unlawful” its handling of sexual misconduct allegations against the former SNP leader, which he strenuously denies.

On Monday night, Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, launched an attack on Mr MacNeil, saying: “It’s cynical in the extreme for senior Nationalists to stoke the fires of independence to distract attention away from the crises elsewhere in the SNP.”

The Fife MSP noted a People’s Vote was gaining support across the UK, adding: “The Nationalists need to stay on board and focus their campaigning efforts there. The lesson of Brexit is the lesson for independence: breaking up is hard to do.”