Holyrood business should be suspended for the final week of the European Union (EU) referendum campaign, the Scottish Liberal Democrats have said.
The party's business manager Mike Rumbles will request the suspension at a meeting of the Scottish Parliament's business bureau, which agrees the parliamentary programme.
Mr Rumbles said the move would allow MSPs to campaign in the crucial final days before the vote on June 23.
Read more: Nicola Sturgeon - threat and fearmongering on both sides of EU debate must stop
The UK Parliament is due to break up for recess a week before the in/out referendum, returning on June 27.
The Scottish Parliament did not sit in the 28 days leading up to 2014's referendum on Scottish independence.
Mr Rumbles said: "Like the independence referendum, the EU referendum will shape the future of our country forever.
"We will choose either to remain in the EU and lead Europe or cut ties with our friends and neighbours and go it alone.
"This will impact on jobs, on our universities, on the NHS and other public services. It is right that this debate gets the attention it demands.
"It was right that the Scottish Parliament did not sit in the weeks before the independence referendum.
Read more: Support for UK to remain in EU growing in Scotland, poll finds
"This gave MSPs and staff at Holyrood the opportunity to get out there and make the case for Better Together or the Yes campaign.
"There is a month to go until the EU poll and no-one is suggesting that we suspend Holyrood until this question is resolved.
"But there is a strong case for the final week of the EU campaign to be about our place in Europe and nothing else."
Mr Rumbles called on the SNP to work with other parties to agree the move, accusing the nationalists of "carping from the sidelines" in the debate over Brexit.
Read more: Brexit would be "self-destruct" option, warns David Cameron
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