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Due to COVID-19 restrictions no audience members were present in the room and the panel was socially distanced. Instead questions were asked by Edinburgh residents using video link.

The panellists were discussing a poll released earlier this week which found record levels of support for Scottish independence.

An STV/Ipsos MORI survey recorded 58 percent of Scots as wanting to leave Britain, versus 42 percent who opposed.

However, Susan, an audience member from Edinburgh, urged politicians to focus on the coronavirus epidemic.

She said: “I’d like to know who’s requesting all of these opinion polls at the moment.

“The UK is currently facing an economic and health crisis of epic proportions and surely constitutional questions are just a complete irrelevance at the moment, can’t we just focus on what really matters right now as one United Kingdom.”

In 2014 Scotland voted to remain part of the United Kingdom by 55 percent of the vote to 45 percent.

Ahead of that poll Ms Sturgeon said it would be a “once in a lifetime opportunity”.

However just years later the nationalist politician was demanding another referendum.

Reacting to the latest poll Ms Sturgeon tweeted: “To my fellow SNP members – this level of support is hard earned but mustn’t be taken for granted.

“Stay focussed & independence will follow – I’ve never been more certain.

“But our, my, immediate responsibility is to lead Scotland through COVID – right now, nothing matters more.”

During the 2016 Brexit referendum a majority in Scotland voted to remain part of the EU whilst most people in England and Wales voted to leave.

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Ms Surgeon’s push for a second referendum was also criticised on Question Time by Ian Wood, a Scottish businessman and philanthropist.

He argued: “We had a referendum five years ago, it’s an incredibly important question, we should absolutely not be addressing it again.

“What’s gone completely wrong in the last two or three years is we’ve got a Scottish Government who generally are adversarial and negative about a whole range of things that might happen with the UK and Scotland working together.

“We don’t have a devolved Government who are just looking after Scotland at all.

“We’ve got a devolved Government who are focused on independence.”

Recently the SNP Government introduced a new wave of coronavirus restrictions for parts of Scotland.

Pubs and bars in the heavily populated central belt are being required to close unless they also serve food.

Also on the panel was Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, who criticised the SNP’s record.

He commented: “Nicola Sturgeon is a very good communicator.

“She is on out every day in Scotland doing the daily briefings, but when it comes down to the detail we still have the highest R rate anywhere in the United Kingdom, the highest percentage of deaths in care homes anywhere in the United Kingdom, one of the highest death rates per head of population in Europe.”

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