PRO-Union campaigners are to ramp up their activity on the eve of the SNP conference.

With Nicola Sturgeon moving closer to calling a second referendum, Scotland in Union will launch an ambitious bid to sign up 250,000 supporters opposed to independence.

Around 200 backers are due to attend the event at The Lighthouse in Glasgow on March 14.

The cross-party group, which was formed shortly after the 2014 referendum by businessman Alastair Cameron, is headed by the former Labour MSP Graeme Pearson.

Mr Pearson, who led the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency before entering Holyrood for one term in 2011, admitted yesterday that he had never heard of Scotland in Union before being approached in December to serve as its £50,000-a-year chief executive.

However he is now working one and half days a week on it, with the aim of demonstrating the scale of support for remaining in the UK.

The Glasgow meeting comes three days before the SNP gather in Aberdeen for their spring conference, when the First Minister is expected to take another step toward a new vote.

She said this week that Scotland faces “a crossroads moment” because of Brexit, a choice between a Tory led post-Brexit Britain and Scotland going in a different direction. 

Having a second referendum may be “necessary” to give people that choice, she said.

She also accused the Tories of using Brexit to undermine Holyrood by denying it new powers.