Nicola Sturgeon warns "overblown" Brexit warnings risk alienating voters and harming pro-EU cause

Nicola Sturgeon has said that "overblown" warnings from the UK Government about the economic consequences of a Brexit risk alienating voters and could harm the pro-EU cause.

The First Minister said that "fear-based" campaigning could have a negative effect on the electorate and damage the pro-European cause in the run up to the In-Out referendum on 23 June.

Sturgeon issued the stark warning as she visited Westminster to set out what she called a positive, progressive pro-EU front alongside Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood and the Green Party’s Caroline Lucas.

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Sturgeon was speaking as Tory Leave backers dismissed a UK Treasury study that claimed a Brexit would hit growth, jobs, wages and house prices as "more propaganda".

Former Tory defence secretary Liam Fox said the analysis was "disreputable, shabby and misleading".

Chancellor George Osborne said a vote to leave could propel the UK economy into a "do-it-yourself recession", in the newly published Treasury analysis.

However, Sturgeon highlighted what she claimed had been the negative approach of the No campaign ahead of the 2014 independence referendum as an example of how it was possible to alienate voters.   

She said: "We only have to look at the Scottish independence referendum to know that kind of fear-based campaigning starts to insult people's intelligence and can start to have a negative effect.

“People have got the savvy to see through some of the overblown claims. “Of course, there would be an economic impact, short, medium and long term if there was a vote to leave the EU but I’m much more interested in the positive reasons to stay in the EU; being part of the single market, the investment and jobs that come with that.

“But also for me what is particularly important are the social and employment protections, maternity rights, paid holidays, a whole range of health and safety protections. These are better guaranteed by being part of the EU than they would be if a Westminster government had unfettered control over them.”

The Scottish Vote Leave campaign welcomed Sturgeon’s intervention.

Tom Harris, the campaign director, said: “David Cameron calls remain a 'positive campaign' but we in Scotland know it's just Protect Fear. Even supporters of a Remain vote are saying it.”