THE argument for an independent Scotland is going to be "annihilated," Nick Clegg has told MPs.

Speaking during question-time in the House of Commons, the Deputy Prime Minister was responding to a question from SNP MP Angus MacNeil.

Mr MacNeil, the Western Isles MP asked: "I wonder if a party, who are currently in government, that gets annihilated at a general election, should they keep their peers in the House of Lords as it won't then be reflected in the House of Commons."

Mr Clegg replied: "The only thing that's going to be annihilated is the argument for an independent Scotland, which is not gaining any currency from the people of Scotland because the vast majority of people in Scotland and elsewhere want to keep the United Kingdom together."

Elsewhere, the Queen, at a meeting of the Privy Council, approved the parliamentary order that transfers the power to hold a referendum on Scottish independence from Westminster to Holyrood.