£600... to appear in an SNP advert

Party chiefs’ offer to actors for ‘propaganda’ role

ACTORS have been offered £600 to appear in an SNP television advert saying they are former Unionists who now back Scottish independence.

Nationalist chiefs are hoping to persuade supporters of the Union to swap sides in a future Scexit referendum through the campaign.

In the advert, the actors would reveal they had changed their mind after the 2014 vote.

The Scottish Sun yesterday revealed a casting agency had posted a listing on its website on behalf of the SNP – with party bosses targeting males aged 55-70. One of the listings said actors ‘must have changed mind since last referendum and support independence’.

Yesterday, t he SNP was branded ‘desperate’ f or i ts ‘propaganda’ efforts. Scotland in Union chief executive Pamela Nash said: ‘This shows just how desperate the campaign to leave the UK has become.’

She added: ‘The reality is the campaign to leave the UK is losing supporters four times faster than it is gaining them, as the reality of breaking up Britain becomes clearer. Rather than paying people in a new currency, erecting a hard border with England and cutting services for the most vulnerable, the best future for Scotland is growing our economy and preserving our social and cultural ties as part of the UK.’

A recent poll for pro-independence think tank Progress Scotland revealed a large swing since the 2014 referendum in voters who had changed from supporting separation to opposing it.

The survey, conducted by Survation, found that of those who had voted for independence, 16 per cent now said they would ‘ completely support Scotland staying part of the UK’. Only 4 per cent of No voters polled had switched to support breaking up the UK.

An SNP spokesman said: ‘We’ll leave our opponents to snipe from the sidelines.

‘Support for independence is on the rise and our campaign has the wind in its sails.’

In April 2015, t he SNP launched an advertising blitz in the hope of gaining Scottish votes in the General Election.

It featured a poster showing the green benches of the House of Commons turned tartan and the message: ‘The more seats we have here, the more powers we’ll have in Scotland.’ Before the campaign, Miss Sturgeon attempted to reach out to those who voted No in the referendum by claiming her party could help ‘unite’ the country and that ‘Scotland only wins when the SNP wins’.

Former SNP justice secretary Kenny MacAskill later admitted his disappointment with the adverts. Writing in the Holyrood magazine, he said: ‘ Poster adverts of what appeared to be a tartan rug on empty green benches was the most uninspiring SNP advert in years.’

In 2014, all adverts on the Scottish independence referendum were banned from the UK’s major cinema chains after a raft of customer complaints.

The pro-Union Better Together campaign said most came from independence supporters after Better Together and another pro-UK group, Vote No Borders, flooded cinema screens with adverts urging viewers to vote No.

‘Campaign losing supporters’