Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s John Ainslie sought to reassure backbenchers on Holyrood’s Europe and external relations committee yesterday over the SNP government’s claims it will remove nukes from Scottish soil.

The party has vowed to carry out the policy if independence is secured in September’s referendum, but has said it would also seek membership of US-led military alliance Nato.

But policy group the Red Paper Collective has raised doubts about whether independence will lead to nuclear weapons being removed from Scotland given the SNP’s support for joining Nato.