Lottery winners donate £1m to independence campaign

EuroMillions winners Chris and Colin Weir from Largs in Ayrshire have donated £1 million to the Scottish National Party’s campaign for independence.

The independence campaign now has a fighting fund of almost £2 million following the £1 million left by poet and National Makar Edwin Morgan who died last year at the age of 90.

Mr Weir, who once stood as an SNP candidate in 1987, said the donation was “about more than party politics”.

He continued: “Every society, every country should have the right and the opportunity to determine its own path. That’s something I’ve believed in strongly for a long time.

“We want to give the people of Scotland a fair chance in the referendum campaign that’s why we are supporting the SNP now and into the independence referendum.

“The only people with the right to decide Scotland’s future are the people of Scotland themselves and we want to support the SNP and the referendum campaign in helping Scotland make that decision fairly. “

First Minister and SNP Leader Alex Salmond said he welcomed the “generosity” of the Weirs and praised the additional donations the couple had made to causes in their local community.

It is now likely that the campaign for Scotland’s independence will be able to out-spend the campaign in favour of the Union.

The donation, which is the largest ever in the 77-year history of the Scottish National Party, is expected to give the independence campaign a level playing field against, some argue, the Unionist-aligned press in the run up to the referendum.