But Sturgeon said she believed support for separation would increase once the effects of Brexit become clear and argued that the weakness of the main opposition Labour Party meant the centre-right Conservatives could be in power for decades to come.
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Sturgeon, who took over from Alex Salmond as leader of the SNP in 2014, said she was not sure she would have become First Minister if she had not miscarried.
“So today, we are launching the biggest listening exercise in our party’s history”.
It will run until St Andrew’s Day on 30 November and a website – www.survey2016.scot – has been set up to collect people’s views.
Speaking to an assembly of the party’s MPs, MSPs and MEPs in Stirling, she said: “We want to understand in detail how people feel now about Europe, Brexit and independence”.
The SNP wants to find out why people voted against independence in 2014 and what new offer might persuade them to back it in future.
“The UK that Scotland voted to stay part of has changed and so too have the arguments for and against independence”, Sturgeon added.
He made the comment just two days after he said he would not oppose another independence referendum “i f the Scottish people chose that’s what they wanted and there was agreement in the Labour Party”.
“The UK that existed before June 23 has fundamentally changed”. The SNP says European Union membership was a key factor in Scottish voters’ decision in 2014 to remain part of Britain.
“Ireland-reconsider-ties-to-Britain” class=”local_link” target=”_blank”>writing legislation for another independence vote, prior to the seismic Brexit vote.
The constituency vote share for the survey, which was conducted between August 29 and 31, showed the Scottish National Party in first place with 52 per cent.
The economy was one of the major concerns for Scots voting in the first independence referendum, and is now an even bigger concern given the variability of the European economy following Brexit.
“Re-heating the referendum debate will only add a further cloud of uncertainty over Scotland’s future, just at the moment when we need a government dedicated to security and stability.”
The listening campaign pushes any decision on a second independence referendum beyond the SNP’s October conference.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has spoken for the first time about her “painful experience” of losing a baby in 2011.
With the United Kingdom still in a state of flux post the EU Brexit referendum and most of the nation only just coming back from summer holidays, the Scottish National Party leader made her much anticipated move nearly two years to the day since the failed Scottish independence referendum.
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Meanwhile, Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie warned his supporters the Tories would “always put their party before our country”.
