VISCOUNT Astor, the stepfather of David Cameron's wife Samantha, has accused Nicola Sturgeon of threatening a "Mugabe-style land grab" against country estate owners in Scotland.

The First Minister has put forward controversial plans to change Scotland's land laws, so that one million acres are placed into public ownership by 2020. If the Scottish Government decides the ownership of land by estates becomes a barrier to local development, then it could force landowners to sell up.

The Astor family bought the 20,000-acre Tarbert estate on the Hebridean island of Jura almost a century ago. In the past, the Prime Minister has taken part in deer stalking there.

In the right-wing Spectator magazine, the fourth Viscount, William Waldorf Astor III, wrote: "Following the SNP victory...families like us worry that we will find ourselves regarded as foreigners again in our own country. Is it because we don't sound Scottish? We should not all have to sound like Rob Roy," asked the hereditary peer.

"If the SNP wants us all to speak with a certain type of Scottish accent, what does that say to the many hundreds of thousands in the immigrant community who have lived in Scotland for a long time but still speak with the accent of their birth? Are they not Scottish?"

The 63-year-old businessman echoed concerns about the SNP Government centralising power, arguing that he was concerned Ms Sturgeon's plans would not benefit local communities but, rather, simply hand power to Edinburgh.

"Are we estate owners now to be nationalised or made to feel so unwelcome that we have to sell up in a Mugabe-style land grab?" he asked.

In response, the FM's spokesman branded Lord Astor's comments "pretty preposterous" and said: "I don't think anyone does their argument any favours by using such ridiculous overblown comparisons."