SNP activists are to launch a new campaign aimed at persuading Nationalists to vote Leave in the EU referendum.

The new group - part of the official Vote Leave campaign - defies the party's strongly pro-EU position.

But the leaders of SNP Vote Leave say the case for Brexit is no different from the case for Scottish independence.

Speaking ahead of the launch, businessman Don Robertson urged SNP supporters to back the transfer of powers, including responsibility for agriculture and fishing, from Brussels to Edinburgh.

He said: "I don't understand why we're being asked to vote against more powers for the Scottish Parliament.

"Nicola and our SNP government in Scotland could have more control if we left, yet they don't seem to want it."

Mr Morrison, an SNP member of 50 years and ex-chairman of its Huntly branch, added: "Inside the EU we have zero say and unelected officials govern our country.

"I want to see an independent Scotland, where we can govern ourselves and make our own decisions - that simply isn't possible within the European Union.

"I can't for the life of me understand why the SNP, who said we can do it during the independence referendum, are now saying we can't be successful outside the European Union."

Mr Morrison, who runs an import and export firm specialising in life jackets and flotation equipment, will be joined by another prominent SNP member, the Rev David Robertson, former moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, at the launch on Thursday in Dundee, where 57 per cent of voters backed Yes in 2014.

Only a handful of high profile SNP members have so far broken ranks and opposed the party's support for the EU.

Every SNP Parliamentarian – including 54 MPs at Westminster and 63 Holyrood MPs – has backed Nicola Sturgeon's support for the European Union.

However, former deputy leader Jim Sillars is campaigning for Brexit and earlier this week activist Gary Parker argued the SNP’s support for staying in the EU could be seen as "anti-English".

Mr Parker, who has a founded a separate SNP Leave group - SNP Go - also voiced concern that members were backing leader Ms Sturgeon on "every single matter".

An SNP spokesman said: "This organisation is not a registered campaigner in the EU referendum, has nothing to do with the SNP and its main spokesperson is not even a party member.

"The SNP believes Scotland’s best interests are served by a vote to remain in Europe – and the Leave campaign miss the fundamental point that each of the EU’s 28 member states are independent nations who have chosen to work together for the common good.

“Independence and interdependence go hand in hand in the 21st century – something underlined by the fact that many of the EU’s current members have only become independent in recent decades, and several of them are smaller than Scotland.”