VOTERS in Scotland were urged last night to back independence as an “alternative” to the “mess being created” by the UK Conservative Government.

The message was issued by the SNP’s Tommy Sheppard as Scottish Secretary David Mundell suggested the Union should be maintained even at the cost of the UK crashing out of the European Union without a deal next March.

Speaking at an event in Edinburgh, Mundell said leaving the bloc with no deal would be preferable to breaking up the Union.

“No deal is going to be very disruptive to our economy. It would be a very difficult situation to be in but I think it would be preferable to breaking up the United Kingdom, but I don’t think it’s preferable to an arrangement of the sort the Prime Minister is putting forward,” he said.

“I don’t want to see a no deal, I don’t think a no deal situation is good for Scotland, good for the United Kingdom but we can’t have a situation where the EU can determine that part of the United Kingdom can be dealt with differently than other parts and one of their offers does do that in relation to Northern Ireland.”

In the Commons Sheppard underlined an existing state of “chaos” and Tory infighting over the Prime Minister’s Chequers Brexit plan which has called for greater alignment with the EU and provoked rebellion and resignations among Tory Brexiteers.

The Edinburgh East MP said people in Scotland “had a choice” and did not have to accept “the chaos” that was happening around them.

“There are dark days ahead,” he said. “We don’t know where the Chequers agreement will go. We don’t know what relationship we will have with the European Union and what the status of the Common European Rule Book will be and what bearing that will have.

“But we do know that time is running out to sort these things. And we do know that in the midst of the chaos this government has created, the people of Scotland have an alternative, they have a choice.

“They can decide to become a self-governing country, to take back control of their own affairs and get rid of the mess that is being created as part of the United Kingdom.”

Sheppard, who is the SNP’s Scotland’s Affairs spokesman, was speaking during a debate called by the UK Government on “Strengthening the Union”.

During his 20-minute speech he made a powerful case for independence and said the way the UK Government had handled the Brexit process had substantially weakened the Union.

Sheppard said it had had done this by undermining the devolution settlement, including by ignoring the Sewel convention which states that Westminster should only legislate on devolved areas with Holyrood’s consent; and through a power grab, which would lead to powers in a raft of devolved areas being handed to Westminster, not Holyrood, post Brexit. Pete Wishart, the SNP shadow leader of House, poked fun at ministers for calling the debate on “strengthening the Union” as the UK faced an “an unprecedented crisis with a rudderless government and a leadership in crisis”.

The MP hit out over the consequences of a no deal, citing civil servants’ forecasts that supermarkets north of the Border would run out of food after a couple of days and that the government was advising families to stock up with canned food.

And he said: “Scotland is tethered to the HMS Brexitannia which is heading full speed for the biggest iceberg ever encountered in political history ... but for Scotland there are life rafts attached and they are marked independence.”

His speech was later taken up by Scottish Tory MP Douglas Ross, who accused him of writing a speech to fit a National front page.

“Why did we have all this talk about HMS Brexitannia and then it came to me. Clearly the editor of The National has been on the phone and said ‘we’ve got this great idea for a picture to put on the front page but we need someone to give us a story’ and as always the honourable member for Perth and North Perthshire obliged,” he said.

Cabinet Office minister Chloe Smith said the government believed that being part of the UK benefitted all citizens in the four nations.