Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw has urged Scots to vote Tory to put plans for a second independence referendum “in cold storage for good”.

He urged unionist Scots to band together to stop a second independence referendum.

But SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said Scottish voters should “aim higher” than Boris Johnson and Brexit when voting in the General Election on Thursday.

She said a vote for her party would “put Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands”.

Ahead of campaigning on Sunday, Mr Carlaw said: “Two years ago, three-quarters of a million Scots gave their vote to the Scottish Conservatives to stop the SNP’s divisive second independence referendum.

“By acting together, they won. They toppled nationalist MPs off their perch, and forced Nicola Sturgeon to put her indyref2 plans on ice.

“This week, we need those 750,000 people to come together once more and tell her again.

“As more pro-union voters join them in backing the Scottish Conservatives during this campaign, this time we can put that referendum in the cold storage for good.

“Pro-UK voters need to act as one. Jeremy Corbyn won’t stop her, only the Scottish Conservatives will do so.”

Ms Sturgeon said the “very future” of Scotland is at stake in the election.

Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Sturgeon vowed the SNP would put Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands (Jane Barlow/PA)

She said: “Scotland cannot afford to live under more Westminster chaos for years and potentially decades – and we certainly cannot afford five years of Boris Johnson.

“The people of Scotland can do better than Boris and Brexit – and on Thursday we should aim higher.

“This Thursday people in Scotland have an opportunity to unite and demand the right to choose a better future as an independent country – where we always get the governments we vote for and where we have the powers we need to make Scotland the best it can be.

“So I am asking Scotland to unite behind the SNP this Thursday – to escape Brexit, protect the NHS and to put Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands – not Boris Johnson’s.”

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour highlighted the gaps between affluent and poorer parts of Scotland.

Party leader Richard Leonard pointed to statistics indicating people in the least deprived areas of Scotland live nearly 23 years more in “good health” than those in the most deprived areas.

He said: “How can it be right that some citizens can live over 70 years in good health due to their socioeconomic circumstances, while others in the same country, living as little as a mile away, die way earlier than they should?”

“How can it be right that one in four children in Scotland wake up hungry, go to school hungry and go to bed hungry?

“Inequality is bad for everyone in Scotland. It depresses economic growth, lowers social mobility, damages community cohesion and increases crime. Rising inequality hurts everyone regardless of economic status.

“Let’s make this the last Christmas where health inequalities deepen in Scotland.”