TORY policies are directly to blame for the growth of foodbanks in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday, as she warned more Tory MPs would lead to greater “needless austerity”.

Visiting a foodbank in Inverness, the First Minister said the increase was a damning indictment of Tory welfare cuts on communities across the country.

She said: “There can be no doubt that the Tories at Westminster would use a bigger majority at this election to make ordinary families bear an even greater burden of needless austerity.

"I want to see austerity end and end at source. Tory policies, particularly their social security policies, are plunging more and more people into poverty.

"This is one of the areas where universal credit has been implemented early, and the impact of that has been devastating for a lot of people. I don't think Scotland will benefit from having Tory MPs who act as rubber-stamps for Theresa May."

The Tories seized on a speech by the president of the CBI, which briefly registered as a No campaigner in 2014, in which he criticised the SNP’s pursuit of independence.

Paul Dreschler told the CBI Scotland annual lunch in Edinburgh: “Everybody knows business abhors uncertainty. And it doesn't matter how keen Scottish businesses are to thrive, at the moment there's more than enough uncertainty to go round.

"We at the CBI think the current priority should be clarity on what a future UK-EU deal could look like, and ensuring the needs of Scotland are included, rather than constitutional issues.”

Tory finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said: "The CBI has spoken for job creators and workers all over Scotland. We have had enough of the SNP's endless constitutional division. We desperately need a government focused on the day job."

SNP Dundee East candidate Stewart Hosie said: "Brexit is a constitutional issue.

“It's only fair that Scotland gets a choice on its future once the terms of Brexit are clear - and that should be a decision for Scotland, not Westminster Tories."

In Stornoway, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said island communities had suffered a “double whammy” of cuts and centralisation under the SNP.

She said: “For a Scotland that works for the future we have to redistribute power and wealth.

"With all of the uncertainty for local economies that will be created by Brexit the last thing island communities need is the uncertainty and division of a second referendum."

Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie visited a scrapyard in Inverkeithing to call on Ms Sturgeon to “scrap the SNP’s independence referendum”.

He claimed the First Minister feared losing seats to his party after she visited three of its target seats last week.

He said: “The SNP are rattled. They have spent three whole days trying to stop us. The First Minister has been playing ‘me and my shadow’. The SNP know we are the challengers.

“It is now up to local people to rally behind the Liberal Democrat challenger to stop the SNP.”