The party spent £228,000 but still finished more than 90,000 votes behind the SNP, which spent £126,000 and got 321,000 votes.

Both parties returned two MEPs.

A total of £740,000 was spent by all parties in the run-up to the vote in June last year, according to the Electoral Commission.

Two thirds of the money was spent on leaflets and other campaign material and 10% was spent on party political broadcasts.

The Tories spent £156,000 and the Lib Dems spent £105,000. Each returned one MEP, to complete Scotland’s tally of six.

Tory spending was almost £100,000 down on their total at the last Euro elections five years ago.

And the £740,000 total spent in 2009 was £90,000 less than the total five years ago.

The four main parties accounted for 83% of the spending, with all parties remaining inside the £270,000 limit.

The biggest spenders outside the mainstream parties was The Jury Team, backed by former Tory donor Sir Paul Judge, which spent £32,000 in the campaign but finished last with 6,000 votes, less than 1% of the turnout.

The Greens spent just £11,000 and finished fifth in the overall vote share with 80,000 votes, compared with the Lib Dems’ 127,000 votes.

Ukip spent £31,000 and got 57,000 votes, the sixth highest in Scotland.

SNP MSP Joe Fitzpatrick, who headed up the party’s European campaign, said: “As Labour and the Tories pumped money in from England to buy Scottish votes it was the SNP’s hard work and support for Scottish jobs and a strong Scottish voice in Europe that won public support.

“As we go into this year’s Westminster elections the SNP will continue our hard work on the ground to give Scotland a strong voice in London over the phoney war of Labour and the Tories.”