The First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was booed by a section of the audience when she was quizzed on the SNP’s stance on another Scottish independence referendum.
After UK politics in 2014 was dominated by the Sreferendum, she insisted a win for the SNP in Scotland in May would not trigger another such ballot.
However she said whether the 2016 Holyrood elections could be used to bring about a second independence vote was “another matter”.
Ms Sturgeon said: “I respect the result of the referendum last year, it was a hard fought, passionate campaign, I gave it my everything to persuade people to vote Yes, the country didn’t vote Yes and I respect that.”
She continued: “This Westminster election is not a re-run of the referendum campaign, if you vote SNP in this election it doesn’t mean Scotland has another referendum, or becomes independent as a result.”
STV political editor Bernard Ponsonby, who was moderating the debate, then asked her about after the 2016 Scottish elections
“That’s another matter,” Ms Sturgeon told him.
“We will write that manifesto when we get there. I will fight one election at a time. I’m putting forward in a couple of weeks a manifesto for this election and I will decide the content of our next manifesto when we get there, and people can decide whether or not they vote for that.”
She added: “If the people of Scotland don’t vote for a party with a commitment in a manifesto to a referendum, there won’t be another referendum, that’s the point I’m making. The people are in charge, not politicians.”
Meanwhile Mr Rennie said he wanted to maintain the “progress” the Liberal Democrats have made in government in the next five years.
He said: “I don’t want to veer off to the left or the right like the others propose. I want to keep on that path and keep that recovery going.
“What we need to do to ensure that we do that is invest in the NHS and make sure we balance the books.”