A vote to leave the EU would create a “strong groundswell” of support for a second referendum on Scottish independence, according to Val McDermid, one of Scotland's most successful authors.
The 60-year-old best-selling writer, well-known for her suspense novels featuring Dr Tony Hill that were turned into TV series Wire In The Blood, also said she would not follow Leave campaigners Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove "out of a burning building".
Ms McDermid, from Kirkcaldy in Fife, made clear she was keen to remain in the EU for both practical and cultural reasons; on the former it would be easier to protect writers’ rights and revenues while on the latter it enhanced Britain’s culture, making it deeper and wider. “The last thing we should do is look inward,” she declared.
Speaking in Edinburgh, the Scots author, who supported Scottish independence in the 2014 vote, added: "If we vote to leave, that creates issues for Scotland. It would be possible to argue we should have a second referendum.
"It hasn't been straightforward to move on from the last one and people who voted to stay[in the UK] might be less inclined to stay if we aren't part of Europe and there would be a strong groundswell for a second referendum if the vote is to leave.
"As for the Leave campaign...Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, I wouldn't follow them out of a burning building."
Meantime, Jim Sillars told a Leave campaign event Nicola Sturgeon’s prediction that Brexit would trigger another independence referendum "doesn't stand up to analysis".
The former SNP deputy leader, who is one of few high-profile nationalists to publicly back an Out vote, said the First Minister had not sought an unequivocal mandate for a fresh referendum ahead of the Holyrood election.
Read more: UK voters fear Scottish independence more than Brexit, poll finds
"Isn't it a contradiction to want to be independent of England in a country of 60 million people where we have nine per cent representation in a sovereign parliament, to then want to be part of a larger union of 28 member states where our vote in the European Parliament is one per cent and we would have very little influence?” asked Mr Sillars.
He added: “The SNP seems to have had some sort of love affair with the EU and they are so entranced by it they are incapable of looking at it and seeing it for what it is; an undemocratic organisation run by an unelected elite.”
Read more: Scots 'would oppose independence referendum if a Brexit goes against their vote'
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