FORMER SNP leader Gordon Wilson will warn party activists that legalising same-sex marriage is "sliding down the road to fascism" in a fringe meeting at his party conference, prompting demands for an apology from equal rights campaigners.

Mr Wilson will repeat his call against same-sex marriage and warn MSPs they face losing their seats if they "scorn the electorate" at a meeting of the SNP conference in Perth.

He will say: "The consultation process was a fraud. What is the point of canvassing the views of the electorate and then cynically discarding them? If you think we are sliding down a road to state fascism and intolerance, you may not be far wrong."

Of 80,000 consultation responses, 36% were in favour of same-sex marriage and 64% against. However, when individual responses were measured the result became 65% in favour and 35% against.

The SNP has insisted protections will be included in the new law to ensure churches and individuals do not have to conduct same-sex marriages.

Mr Wilson will add: "For the churches must surely come the realisation that the secular state in the UK is becoming openly intolerant of religion."

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has also likened same-sex marriage to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.

Tom French, Policy Co-ordinator for the Equality Network, said: "The opponents of LGBT equality have sunk to a new low by comparing equal marriage supporters to fascists and Nazis. The fascist regimes of the 20th-century persecuted, tortured and murdered LGBT people. The Scottish Government are promoting equality."