The Conservatives are "running scared" from the prospect of Scots voting for independence, the SNP's deputy leader has said.

Angus Robertson, who also acts as the party's leader in Westminster, accused Theresa May and her party of not trusting the Scottish people.

The Moray MP opened his party's conference in Aberdeen just a day after the Prime Minister said "now is not the time" for a second independence referendum.

She made her statement despite the Scottish Parliament being set to back plans next week to hold one.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said a referendum on the country's future should be held between autumn next year and spring 2019, when the terms UK's exit deal with the EU "are clear".

Robertson will said: "Our conference will underline our party's priorities - education, growing the economy, investing in the NHS and protecting public services.

"We will also show the trust we place in the people of Scotland.

"It is clear from the PM's panicked response to the Scottish Government's decision to rightly give people in Scotland a choice over Scotland's future that the Tories are simply scared of the people's choice."

He added: "The Tories' argument is not about process, it is about their desperate desire to prevent anyone having the chance to reject the hard right Brexit that they are so wedded to.

"The truth is it should not be for either Theresa May or the Scottish Government to decide Scotland's future, that choice belongs to the parliament and the people of Scotland and it is one this party will never shy away from."

Robertson's address came after the Prime Minister will pledge to "strengthen" the union between the four nations of the UK in a speech of her own later on Friday.

The UK Government disputes Sturgeon's claims the terms of the UK's exit treaty will be known by autumn 2018.

Writing in the Times, May said holding a referendum on the SNP's proposed timetable would "not be fair" as Scots would be making the decision "without the necessary information".

She said: "I do not agree with the SNP that now is the time to be talking about a second independence referendum.

"To do so now, while all our energies should be directed towards the negotiations with Europe, would make it more difficult to get the right deal for Scotland and the right deal for the UK as a whole.

"It is not something to which any responsible government could reasonably agree."

The Prime Minister added: "The SNP is trying to force the UK Government to agree to something that is fundamentally unfair to the Scottish people.

"It wants to ask them to make a crucial decision without the necessary information.

"They would not know what the new partnership with the EU would look like or what the alternative of an independent Scotland would be. It would simply not be fair."