THE campaign to save the union is in disarray, with Labour’s top Scottish donor withholding support.
Willie Haughey, a tycoon who has given Labour about £1.3m since 2003, is the latest in a series of wealthy unionist businessmen refusing to back the No campaign.
Sir Jack Harvie, a Scottish construction tycoon who has raised about £16m for the Tories, has already made it clear he will not play a role despite pressure from within the party.
Lord Laidlaw, one of Scotland’s wealthiest men, who gave the Tories £3m but stopped bankrolling the party in 2009, has confirmed he will not provide support.
At the same time the Yes campaign has been gathering momentum with entrepreneurs Jim McColl and Sir Tom Farmer saying they would back independence in the event that greater devolution is not an option in the 2014 referendum.
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While the Scottish National party has amassed a £2m fighting fund for the Yes campaign, a senior Labour source said that the No campaign is “struggling to raise funds”.to compete on a level playing field.
One factor being cited by members of the No camp is a fear of recriminations from hardline nationalists, dubbed the cybernats, who have subjected opponents of independence to personal abuse online.
“People who say Yes to independence won’t be attacked by people who say No but people who say No will most certainly be attacked by the cybernats and that’s why some people don’t want to put their heads above the parapet,” said one senior business figure.
Labour sources said the atmosphere had not been helped by MSP Joan McAlpine, Alex Salmond’s parliamentary liaison officer, who recently described unionist parties as “anti-Scottish”.
Michelle Mone, the lingerie entrepreneur, is among those who have been targeted for abuse after declaring her opposition to independence in an interview with The Sunday Times.
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Some members of the Scottish business community are also wary of making an enemy of Salmond given that he could remain as first minister for another parliamentary term after the referendum result.
Michael Moore, the Scottish secretary, toured boardrooms last week to bang the drum for the union, and he insists that there is little support for independence among the business community.
Moore, like David Cameron, argues that the issue of greater devolution should only be dealt with after a simple Yes/No independence referendum has been conducted.
The coalition government has indicated that it will only put the referendum on a legal footing if the referendum is held on this basis.
However, the interventions of McColl and Farmer and the reluctance of unionists donors to back the Yes campaign will put pressure on the coalition parties to rethink their approach. Haughey was unavailable for comment.
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Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that more than 4,000 people have volunteered to become “Yes ambassadors” in the campaign for independence, acding to