About his skin colour and were anti-English

ownership of the commonly used expression.

He added: “People following AUOB now need to have a think about what is happening with the movement.

“People need to think about what kind of Scotland they’re trying to build.

“If we do become independent, it needs to be a loving and fair society that we’re trying to build, not one where people hold bigoted views.

“You need to think about your reasons for wanting independence. If it’s to become a small-minded, bigoted country then that isn’t something I want to be a part of.”

Singh said he also realised it was time to go when it became clear that he and co-founder Neil Mackay wanted to take the group on a different path.

He added: “Neil was one of the founders along with me but I realised we had different visions on how AUOB should be run.

“The new movement wi l l allow people to support Scottish independence in an honest and decent way.

“We’re creating a constitution that will be posted online and I want it to be a fully transparent organisation.

“We want to start doing rallies and have some events planned for later this month.

“I want to make absolutely clear that I don’t think the wider AUOB movement is racist and bigoted, I know that the vast majority are decent, good people.”

Singh was suspended as operations director of AUOB last year before leaving the group.

He had accused Mackay of demanding £140 raised at a rally in Oban be deposited in his ill mum’s account.

The money was alleged to be for walking sticks she couldn’t get on the NHS.

We prev iously revealed infighting over AUOB collection buckets passed round the crowd at events and claims of a “double bucketing” operation.

A spokesman for AUOB told the Sunday Mai l : “As was reported at the time, Mr Singh was dismissed on July 21, 2019, following a conduct hearing.

“All Under One Banner acts in support of Scotland becoming an independent country and does so without any prejudice, be that in respect of race, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, nationality or ethnicity.

“The allegations are untrue.” The AUOB website states: “Our aim is to support Scottish independence.

“We do that by organising public marches and ral lies. Marches and rallies take place in towns and cities across Scotland every year.”

Events planned for this summer have been rescheduled for 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak. A report in June suggested pro- independence parades had caused “considerable difficulties” for the police and councils.

Dr Michael Rosie, of Edinburgh University, said organisers had not provided enough stewards and routinely “overinflated” the numbers taking part.

He said AUOB had claimed 7000 people marched in Oban, 12,000 in Aberdeen and 100,000 in Glasgow but claimed numbers taking part were closer to 2500, 5000 and 35,000.

Rosie said: “Predicted numbers wi l l play a role in forward planning for both police and local authority, who must consider how to safely facilitate not simply the march or parade, but also the broader area and the wider public that it will march through.”