A long-serving SNP councillor has announced he will be voting against his party and calling for the country to leave the UK.
Fraserburgh councillor Brian Topping has served the town for 32 years as a member of the SNP and has campaigned for the party and its leaders at every election.
Now, however, the former chef-turned-community stalwart has decided to break ranks and confirm he will be voting for “Brexit” before his constituents head to the polls tomorrow.
Last night, Mr Topping said political parties across the country would be split by the referendum.
He said: “You just have to look at the Tories.
“A lot of local people have been asking me what I think about it and my views are very strong. I am for leaving Europe.”
Mr Topping’s views are markedly different from those of his party’s leader, Nicola Sturgeon, who has urged Scots to vote to remain in the EU.
However, Mr Topping believes the country can only control its own destiny if it breaks away from Europe.
He said: “I live and breathe for independence in Scotland, but I remember when, growing up, we went into the common market. I was dead against it then, and I’m dead against it now.
“I’ve been an SNP councillor for 32 years and I represent a fishing community. I see the way the Tory party of the 70s – taking us into Europe – has affected us.
“I know myself and thousands of fishermen in Fraserburgh, Peterhead and throughout the north-east will never, ever forgive them.
“It basically devastated the fishing industry in Scotland and the whole of the UK.
“I want Scotland to be in charge of its own destiny, and I cannot see how we can do that and, at the same time, be in Europe and have un-elected people making policies that we may or may not agree with.”
Mr Topping moved to Fraserburgh from Edinburgh in 1981.
Since then, he has served as a commissioner on the town’s harbour board and is currently the chairman of Fraserburgh’s community safety group.
He was elected as a councilor for what was then known as Buchan District Council on May 3, 1984.
