Anti-independence campaigners must “hammer home” the benefits of the Union to both Scotland and the UK, the Scottish Tory leader will say today.
With less than a year to go till the vote on whether to stay in the UK, those who support the Union have a “a lot of work to do”, Ruth Davidson will say.
She will add that First Minister Alex Salmond has never spoken for the majority when he makes the case for independence.
Ms Davidson will use her speech at the UK Conservatives’ annual conference in Manchester to issue a rallying cry for the Union.
“It’s Alex Salmond who talks Britain down, saying Scots are desperate to leave. Well, I’m telling you now: don’t believe it. When it comes to this issue, Alex Salmond doesn’t speak for a majority of Scots.
“In fact, he never has,” she will tell party activists.
Those campaigning to keep Scotland in the UK are “not complacent”, she will say.
“In the months ahead we have a lot of work to do to hammer home to people just how much Scotland gains from being part of the United Kingdom and how much the United Kingdom benefits from Scotland being a member. There is no doubt the UK, as a nation, is greater than the sum of its parts.”
The independence referendum, to be held on September 18 next year, “isn’t the same as an election”, she will say.
“If we don’t like the result, we can’t just come back in five years’ time and vote again. It is a choice that is vital and is binding. And while everybody understands why this matters to Scotland, I want to stress its importance to the rest of the UK and why, as Conservatives, we are leading the fight to keep our country together.
“In the good times, we have shared our prosperity and our expertise. In darker days, we stood shoulder to shoulder with our allies and with each other. The Union is in our DNA,” she will say.