THE SCOTTISH Greens have insisted a “big brother style unit to salvage the broken union” will be resisted.

The party, the junior partner in the Scottish Government administration, has pointed to threats by the two candidates vying to become the next prime minister to reconvene a ‘union unit’.

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have both insisted they will block any attempts by the Scottish Government to hold a second referendum on independence – with the Greens stressing that the next leader will just see a continuation of the strategy under Boris Johnson.

Nicola Sturgeon has set out plans to hold a referendum in October next year, subject to the UK Supreme Court paving a legal route for the poll.

In a bid to convince Tory members in Scotland to back them, both candidates have set out a host of policies aimed at strengthening the Union and the presence of the UK Government in Scotland.

Mr Sunak has also unveiled plans to reform a team of advisers within Downing Street known as the "union unit".

Scottish Greens finance spokesman, Ross Greer, said: “This is the cruellest and most arrogant Tory government in a generation, right up there with Thatcher at her worst.

“Even as the removal vans cart away the last remnants of a Boris Johnson administration which failed Scotland over and over again, it is clear we are in for more of the same.

“The fact that both of the Prime Minister’s potential replacements say stopping Scotland’s democratic right to an independence referendum is a priority, and worse, that they intend to impose some big brother style unit to salvage the broken union, says it all.”