Pro-Union group in recruitment drive

PRO-UNION campaigners are to ramp up activity on the eve of the SNP conference.

With Nicola Sturgeon moving ever closer to calling a second referendum, Scotland in Union will launch an ambitious bid to sign up 250,000 supporters opposed to independence.

About 200 backers are due to attend the event at The Lighthouse in Glasgow on March 14.

The cross-party group, formed shortly after the 2014 referendum by businessman Alastair Cameron, is headed by former Labour MSP Graeme Pearson.

Mr Pearson, 66, who led the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency before entering Holyrood for one term in 2011, admitted yesterday he had never heard of Scotland in Union before being approached in December to serve as its £50,000-a-year chief executive. He is now working one-and-a-half days a week for the organisation.

The Glasgow meeting comes three days before the SNP gathers in Aberdeen for its spring conference, when the First Minister is expected to take another step toward a new vote.

She said this week that Scotland faces “a crossroads moment” with a choice between a Tory led postBrexit Britain and Scotland going in a different direction. Having a second referendum may be “necessary” to give people that choice, she said.

She also accused the Tories of using Brexit to undermine Holyrood by withholding powers due to be repatriated from Brussels.