Europe to be "front and centre" for SNP, says Sturgeon

Addressing the SNP’s national council, she rejected the ‘Project fear’ approach that has characterised much of the debate so far on both sides, and warned against complacency.

“The social protections that membership has given us - from maternity rights to workers’ rights to freedom of movement - are almost so ingrained in our daily lives that it is easy to take them from granted,” she told party activists in Perth.

Former First Minister Alex Salmond and transport minister Humza Yousaf also spoke in favour of the EU at the event.

The SNP also launched a new pro-EU logo based on the word IN, the party’s own logo and the European flag.

Sturgeon is due to take part in a pro-EU event in London tomorrow with Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood and Green MP Caroline Lucas.

The First Minister will set out her priorities for government at Holyrood on Wednesday, focusing on education and the economy.

On Thursday, her government will propose a debate on Scotland and the EU, with external affairs secretary Fiona Hyslop leading the case for Remain - an event which may also smoke out pro-Brexit Tories.

Polls suggest Scotland and London are the most solidly Remain parts of the UK.

However Scottish LibDem leader yesterday warned Sturgeon not to take that for granted.

In a speech to party members in Fife, Willie Rennie accused the SNP of failing to work with others, and making the “sloppy assumption” that there was little appetite for Brexit in Scotland.

He said: “The SNP seem to take for granted that Scotland will vote radically differently from England. That misunderstands the complex range of views that exists in Scotland about Europe. If the SNP continue to behave as they are they could risk a growth in the leave vote."

Meanwhile former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged young people and Labour voters to swing behind the Remain campaign.

Addressing the Fabian Society summer conference in London, he said he would “focus relentlessly on the positive, practical and progressive benefits” the EU delivered for British working families, including 500,000 new jobs in the next decade, lower energy bills, better security, fairer tax and workers’ rights.

However the 45-minute speech also included a dated “message to mothers worried about their children’s future”, but not a reference to fathers concerned for their children.

Brown said Britain has engaged with the rest of the world for centuries, and if it left the EU and refused to cooperate with its nearest neighbours, it would send a terrible message.

“The way forward lies in Britain leading in Europe not leaving,” he concluded.

In contrast to last weekend’s frenetic campaigning, and vicious Tory infighting, yesterday was calmer, with the main intervention from George Osborne.

Speaking at the G7 summit in Japan, the chancellor said house prices could be 10 to 18 per cent lower and mortgage costs higher after Brexit compared to staying in the EU.

He said: “If we leave the EU, there will be an immediate economic shock that will hit financial markets. People will not know what the future looks like.

"In the long term, the country and the people in the country are going to be poorer. That affects the value of people’s homes and Treasury analysis shows there would be a hit to the value of people’s homes by at least 10 and up to 18 per cent”.

Tory energy minister Andrea Leadsom, for Vote Leave, called it “an extraordinary claim” and said the greatest threat to the economy was “the perilous state of the euro”.

Euro-sceptic former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said: “When I heard that, I did think of Pinocchio and the nose growing rather long here.

"Even the Treasury report has to admit that even under their most pessimistic forecasts the British economy would continue to grow after we left the European Union."