NICK Clegg and Danny Alexander have stepped up their campaign against Conservative eurosceptics, denouncing them as "unpatriotic".
Mr Alexander, the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury, warned that those who wanted to leave the European Union were opposed to economic growth and acting against the best interests of the country.
His party leader went even further accusing "large parts" of the Tory Party of being "unpatriotic" for advocating British withdrawal.
The comments led to accusations from Nigel Farage, leader of Ukip, that the LibDems were "rattled" by the news that the eurosceptics have secured the financial backing of multi-millionaire Paul Sykes.
Mr Sykes, a former Conservative Party donor who has previously been estimated to be worth £650 million, has pledged to pay for Ukip's campaign during next year's European elections.
Speaking to journalists, Deputy Prime Minister Mr Clegg said that seeking EU exit was "a betrayal of the national interest."
He said that withdrawal would cost jobs and economic prosperity and leave Britain weaker as a country.
In a speech Mr Alexander said: "If you are anti-Europe, you are anti-business, anti-growth, acting against the best interests of your country."
He also issued a rallying call to businesses to make their voices heard on the issue.
Mr Farage responded: "These ridiculous comments from Mr Clegg demonstrate just how worried the pro-EU establishment are becoming.
"The news Paul Sykes will be supporting the Ukip European election campaign clearly has them worried and already we're seeing pathetic attacks of this nature."
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 hereComments are closed on this article