A referendum day row broke out after the official Leave campaign suggested that Scotland is not a "heartland" of the UK.
An email, sent out in a bid to encourage Brexit supporters to tell their friends to vote, claimed that early reports suggested turnout was high north of the border as well as in London.
It described the UK capital and Scotland as "the two areas of the country most against us" and warned of a "very real chance" that Remain could emerge victorious as a result of votes cast there.
It added that this could mean the result went against the Brexit camp "despite the heartlands of the voting to Leave" and pleaded for "help to stop this from happening."
The email, signed by Vote Leave chief executive Matthew Elliott, stated: "If you don't want people in London to force you and your family to stay in the EU please email and call all your friends and make sure they Vote Leave today!"
The claim that Scotland and London were not "heartlands" sparked anger after the email was widely shared on social media.
Alastair Campbell, the former Labour spin doctor, wrote on Twitter: "See Vote Leave email then email friends in North and Scotland to say 'whichever way you vote, we are all part of UK."
John Prescott, the former Deputy Prime Minister, described the email as "panicky" while Kevin Pringle, the ex-SNP communications chief who has been working for the Scotland Stronger In Europe campaign, added: "So here we have it from official Vote Leave: Scotland (and London) are not "heartlands of the country"!
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel