Rishi Sunak today launched the Scottish Conservatives manifesto with an attack on both Labour and the SNP over independence, the European Union and North Sea oil and gas.

The Prime Minister accused the SNP of an “independence obsession” and said it meant “they’ve neglected everything else”.

Mr Sunak said: “If the SNP win a majority of the seats at this election, they will treat that as a mandate to carry on campaigning for independence for another five years.”

He said backing the Conservatives in Scotland was “a vote to put this issue to bed” and “move past these tired, stale arguments and to go forward united and together”.

The Prime Minister warned voters had a choice over whether “the divisive constitutional wrangling of the last decade continues”.

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He went on to insist that his party can make progress in Scotland, criticising the SNP for making Scotland "the high-tax capital of the UK".

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross also addressed activists at the event and said the Tories could still give the SNP a "bad night" on July 4, while admitting the election campaign had become a "tough scrap" and recent scandal on alleged election betting had been "very difficult".

On the eighth anniversary of the Brexit referendum the Prime Minister accused Sir Keir Starmer of a potential “sellout” over fishing to the EU.

A series of polls has put the Conservatives considerably behind Labour in the race for Number 10 and also suggest the party faces challenges from the SNP in seats in the north east and south of Scotland.

They also face threats from the right from Nigel Farage's Reform UK party which is trying to appeal to disillusioned Tory voters.

During his speech, Mr Sunak warned voters considering backing Reform that doing so could "let the SNP in through the back door".

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“It is only the Scottish Conservatives that will stand up for the North Sea’s fishing industry," Mr Suank said in a speech at the Apex Hotel in Edinburgh.

“The EU is already making clear that the price of any deal that Labour wants is a sellout of our fishing industry, and who doubts that Keir Starmer would pay that.

“And while the SNP would surrender all of our new freedoms, it is only the Scottish Conservatives who will stand up for Scotland’s farmers from the borders to the north east. 

"We will legislate for a UK-wide food security target. We will increase farming funding and ringfence it, and this will require the Scottish Government to report on how this money is being spent to support our farmers and boost our food security.”

Mr Sunak also promised to “stand full square behind Scotland’s North Sea oil and gas industry” attacking both the SNP and Labour over their stances.

“Our North Sea industry isn’t safe with Labour," he said.

“The Conservative Government that I lead will always stand full square behind Scotland’s North Sea oil and gas industry.

“We’re committed to new licences, more investment in infrastructure and skills and energy security for our country. We’ll deliver a secure future for the North Sea industry and for the workers that it employs, whereas Labour want to stop all new licences in the North Sea from day one of a Labour government.

“Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband want to tax the UK’s oil and gas sector and the 100,000 Scottish jobs that it supports into oblivion.”

To laughter from supporters, Mr Sunak said: “But Labour don’t want to ban all oil and gas it turns out – just British oil and gas. I mean, they would rather virtue signal to eco-zealots than protect jobs here at home.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer ruled out negotiating with the SNP over a new independence referendum if John Swinney's party won a majority of seats on Thursday next week.

But on the constitution, the Prime Minister said only the Scottish Conservatives have the “courage to stand up to the nationalists”.

He said: “It’s only Douglas (Ross) and his team that have been prepared to properly stand up to the SNP, standing against both Nicola Sturgeon’s gender recognition reforms and the dangerous hate crime act. It shows you that only the Scottish Conservatives have the courage to stand up to the nationalists.”

He added: “If the SNP win the majority of seats at this election, they will treat that as a mandate to carry on campaigning for independence for another five years… A vote for the Scottish Conservatives is a vote to put this issue to bed, to move past these tired and stale arguments and to go forward united and together.”

Speaking to journalists later, Mr Sunak has said the Conservatives can still make progress in Scotland at the General Election, saying: “The future of the country is at stake.”

He said: “Douglas (Ross) and I are confident that we’re going to make good progress here in Scotland and that’s because people are responding very positively to the choice that’s in front of them.

“A vote for the Scottish Conservatives means that you’re going to have your taxes cut, in contrast to the SNP making this the high-tax capital of the UK already and Labour storing up thousands of pounds of tax rises for working people.”

Labour's Shadow Scotland Secretary Ian Murray said: "Douglas Ross and Rishi Sunak are hoping Scots will suddenly forget the last 14 years where a Tory government crashed the economy, sent mortgages and prices soaring and partied during the pandemic.

"For all that Tories try to change their clothes or even their constituencies, voters can see the Scottish Tories' empty promises for what they are – the desperate last gasp of an irrelevant party trying to distract and divide. 

"The Tories have had a decade and a half to deliver on their pledges but instead they gambled with families' savings and put party before country.

"A Labour government will face up to Scotland's challenges head on with a plan to stabilise the economy, create 69,000 green jobs, make work pay and turn Scotland into a clean energy superpower.”

The SNP said the Scottish Conservatives’ manifesto mentioned the SNP 88 times in 76 pages.

Richard Thomson, the SNP’s Candidate for Gordon and Buchan, said: “After 14 years of disaster after disaster from Westminster, it’s clear the Tories’ obsession with the SNP is all they have left.

“The Tory manifesto mentioned the SNP 88 times in 76 pages. They are rattled because they know a well deserved democratic drubbing is on its way and, here in Scotland, a vote for the SNP is the best way to get rid of every single Tory MP. 

“But people in Scotland who’ve been made to endure the worst of austerity, Brexit, and the cost of living crisis, need more than just an escape from Tory politicians, they need an escape from Tory policy.

“In this election it isn’t just the Tories arguing for more austerity, a continuation of Brexit, and denial of Scotland’s democratic rights - it’s the Labour Party under Sir Keir Starmer.

“Scotland deserves better than more of the same from parties whose priority lies with propping up the failing Westminster status quo. For a future made in Scotland, for Scotland, vote SNP on the 4th July.”