THE First Minister has issued a red alert to voters in Scotland after polls forecast a Tory resurgence north of the Border in the snap General Election.

Nicola Sturgeon told people considering backing Theresa May’s party that the country “would pay a heavy” price if the Conservatives were returned to power with a larger majority.

The Tories are campaigning on a message of opposing the bid for a second independence referendum and currently have one Scottish MP — David Mundell.

But a poll published yesterday suggested they could get a much as a third of the vote on 8 June and take 12 seats in what would be their strongest performance in Scotland since the 1970s.

Sturgeon responded starkly, warning of more cuts to Scotland’s budget, thousands of job losses and policies that would harm people on modest incomes if the Tories strengthened their position.

“The more Tory MPs there are, the heavier the price Scotland will pay,” the SNP leader said ahead of her address to the STUC today.

“They’re already cutting nearly £3 billion from the Scottish budget. They’re hitting family incomes hard by cutting and removing child tax credits. They want to remove Scotland from the European Single Market — which will cost thousands of jobs.”

SNP depute leader Angus Robertson said a vote for the Tories in the General Election will be a vote in support of the so-called rape clause.

He said: “Unfortunately the Tories in Scotland have been running away from [the rape-clause] ever since it was passed. The SNP’s position is that we support its repeal at Westminster, and if ever we wanted a timely reminder that the Tories are the nasty party it is this.”

May is mindful of her Commons majority of just 17 and called the election in an attempt to increase the number of Tory MPs in a bid to undermine opposition to her policies — saying “division” at Westminster would risk her “ability to make a success of Brexit”.

But last weekend May’s claim that she will be strengthened in the Brexit talks by a general election victory was dismissed as nonsense by the European parliament’s Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt.

The former Belgian prime minister, who will play a key role in the coming Brexit negotiations, describes the election announced by May on Tuesday as “an attempted power grab by the Conservative party, who wish to take advantage of a Labour party seemingly in disarray to secure another five years of power, before the reality of Brexit bites”.

The Panelbase survey, commissioned by The Sunday Times Scotland, shows 33 per cent backing Ruth Davidson’s party in General Election voting intentions, up from the 2015 result, when they took almost 15 per cent of the vote, and up from 28 per cent in a Panelbase poll conducted in March.

The new poll also shows the SNP on 44 per cent, down from 47 per cent in last month’s poll and from almost 50 per cent in the 2015 election. The SNP won 56 out of 59 Scottish seats in 2015 and is still on course to take home a majority in June.

Support for Labour has dropped to 13 per cent from 14 per cent last month and just over 24 per cent in 2015. With only one MP, Ian Murray, the party faces a battle to maintain a Scottish presence at Westminster.

Among the other parties, the Lib Dems are backed by 5 per cent of voters, up one percentage point from March, while Ukip and the Greens are supported by 2 per cent of voters each, both down from 3per cent. Panelbase polled 1,029 voters between April 18 and 21.

A second poll by Survation, commissioned by the Sunday Post, found support for the SNP at 43 per cent, with the Tories on 28 per cent Scottish Labour lag behind with just under 18 per cent while the Lib Dems recorded almost 9 per cent.

The pollster also asked respondents about independence, with 53 per cent saying they would vote No in a referendum and 47 per cent backing Yes, when those who are undecided are excluded.

A total of 38 per cent said a new Tory majority government would make them more likely to support independence, 15 per cent less likely, 40 per cent no more or less with the remainder not sure. The survey of 1,018 people was also conducted between April 18 and 21.

“The Tories will always be about protecting the interests of the richest and most powerful at the expense of the most vulnerable. They show contempt for the idea of a more equal society. Huge cuts to public services, tax cuts for the rich and an ultra-hard Brexit are what we risk with more Tory MPs. It’s no wonder these polls show that many currently undecided voters would seriously consider independence in the event of another Tory government,” said a spokesman for the Scottish Greens.

“When the terms of the Brexit deal are clear in 18 months from now Scots deserve a choice between two futures: the Tories’ angry, nasty vision for the UK or putting Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands.”

Yesterday the Scottish Socialist Party said it would be launch a campaign to persuade SNP candidates to put a clear mandate for independence in their manifestos for June’s election.

At its annual conference in Glasgow, SSP members endorsed the party’s campaign to make 2017 ‘the independence election’ and agreed that rather than standing candidates, its priority would be to maximise support for self-determination.

“The choice facing Scots voters is either remaining in the UK with the prospect of another 20 years of the Tories or to sidestep such a nightmare, reject a political philosophy we do not support and transform Scotland along the lines we support,” said the SSP’s re-elected national spokesman Colin Fox.

“Our party will be writing to the SNP to insist they put independence at the epicentre of their manifesto.”