THE Treasury has bombarded us all week with facts, figures and forecasts making the case for the UK to remain in the European Union. Its big report, on Monday, warned Brexit would tip the country into a year-long recession, resulting in up to 820,000 job losses within two years.

And it didn't end there. On Thursday – just a couple of hours before purdah rules called a halt to the UK (and Scottish) governments' active participation in the EU debate – there came a warning that present and future pensioners would be worse off if we were outside the EU.

For the Leave campaign, it was another case of scaremongering and Project Fear.

But that wasn't just the view of the Brexiteers.

In a sustained burst of friendly fire, Nicola Sturgeon said the claims were "overblown," while Alex Salmond dismissed the "apocalyptic" warnings as unbelievable.

Another senior nationalist, MP George Kerevan, insisted the Treasury assessment was "one sided and unfairly biased" and "riddled with approximations and inaccurate figures".

It's perhaps no wonder the SNP's allies on the Remain side are becoming increasingly uneasy about the party's approach.

"With friends like these...," some Remainers are starting to think.

The SNP sees no problem with campaigning for a Remain vote while attacking key parts of the UK Government's economic argument for EU membership.

Indeed, the Nationalists believe they are doing the Remain campaign a favour.

They've not, as yet, produced alternative figures of their own but they believe George Osborne is exaggerating the negative economic impacts of Brexit. They think he is scaremongering, in other words, and fear the tactic will rebound, undermining the Remain side's credibility and pushing voters towards Leave.

The view is based on their analysis of the 2014 independence referendum when "positive" campaigning was credited with slashing the No side's commanding early lead.

Their allies in the Remain camp see things very differently.

The SNP's attacks simply hand a barrel-load of ammunition to the Leave side, they say. By undermining the In case, it is the nationalists who will drive voters to Out.

There is another gripe, too, based on a deep suspicion of the SNP's motives.

Some Remain campaigners from other parties see the headline-grabbing attacks as part of the SNP's ongoing campaign for independence.

They believe Ms Sturgeon and her colleagues are more concerned with sending dog whistle messages about the untrustworthiness of the Treasury than they are in actually making a positive case for the EU.

It's not that the SNP leadership is secretly agitating for a Brexit vote that might trigger a second independence referendum. It's that the nationalists have spent years attacking the Treasury and will need to do it again if and when the conditions for another vote are right.

"I'm sure they are committed to the EU but they cannot make a positive argument for a political union," one source said.

"The case is so similar to the case for Scotland staying in the UK, which they opposed two years ago.

"The language and rhetoric of the Leave campaign is so similar to the Yes campaign.

"So in this campaign they are having to make an argument they have spent the past few years attacking.

"There are clear tensions there.

"Can you imagine Alex Salmond saying we have the best of both worlds pooling and sharing resources and sovereignty with the EU?"

Alan Johnson, the former Home Secretary and head of the Labour In campaign, is no fan of Osborne and certainly doesn't believe every pronouncement that emanates from the Treasury but he's confident its case for staying in the EU is sound.

"It's not just the Treasury report. If it was just the Treasury report there might be something in this scepticism," he told me.

"But it's the Treasury report, it's the International Monetary Fund report, it's the Oxford Economics report, it's the London School of Economics report, it's the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

"It is a consistent message from every major creditable economic organisation."

He is not the only Remain campaigner who feels frustrated the SNP seems unable to take the same view.

The nationalists' allies in the Remain camp recognise that Ms Sturgeon, Mr Salmond and colleagues such as Humza Yousaf, leader of the SNP's In campaign, will have a hugely influential role in the EU referendum.

But with a month to go to polling day, they are just hoping to see more of their positive campaign.