Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has warned Prime Minister Boris Johnson he could not keep Scotland in the United Kingdom against the country's will.
Mr Johnson and his government have repeatedly said they will not give the go-ahead for another referendum on Scottish independence.
But Ms Sturgeon said after the Scottish National Party won 48 of Scotland's 59 seats in the UK parliament, her party had been given a mandate for one.
"If he thinks ... saying no is the end of the matter then he is going to find himself completely and utterly wrong," Ms Sturgeon told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
"You cannot hold Scotland in the union against its will ... If the United Kingdom is to continue it can only be by consent. And if Boris Johnson is confident in the case for the union then he should be confident enough to make that case and allow people to decide."
The first Scotland independence referendum failed in 2014, when 55 per cent voted in favour of preserving its membership in the United Kingdom.
But Scotland opposed Britain's withdrawal from the European Union in the 2016 referendum, which looks almost certain after the win for Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives.
On the streets of Glasgow, the mood was combative.
"We need to get away from them, we have to absolutely get away from them," Katrina McKaylor, a bank worker in her 40s, told AFP.
"They don't even think like us, they are just totally different people and I don't want to be part of that."
