Lottery winners Chris and Colin Weir have provided over 80% of funding for 'yes' campaign

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Ayrshire couple won £161million in Euromillions lottery draw in 2011
Chris and Colin Weir have donated £4.5million to SNP and Yes campaign
Means 80 per cent of £4.9million cost of campaign came from one source

Published: 18:46 EST, 11 May 2014 | Updated: 02:26 EST, 12 May 2014

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Lottery winners Chris and Colin Weir have bankrolled an astonishing 80 per cent of Yes Scotland’s fight to break up Britain, donating £2.5million to the cause in just 12 months.

The full extent of the Weirs’ financial backing was laid bare yesterday when Yes Scotland finally released documents detailing the major donors for 2013/14 as the referendum date nears looms into sight.

It shows that the Ayrshire couple, who won £161m in a Euromillions draw in 2011, has donated a total of £4.5m to SNP and the Yes campaign since their win - £1.5m more than had previously been estimated.

Euromillions winners Chris and Colin Weir who received £161million in 2011 from the lottery draw

It means almost 80 per cent of £4.9million funding for the separation campaign has come from just one source – something the grassroots campaign Unlock Democracy warned was ‘unhealthy’.

Critics said yesterday that the balance of funding was ‘unhealthy’ - and opponents Better Together claimed the figures made a mockery of Yes Scotland’s claims of diverse grass-roots support.

Alexandra Runswick, director of Unlock Democracy, which campaigns for open and transparent politics, said: ‘I don’t think that’s healthy.

‘Whether it is one large donor funding a political party, or one side of a referendum, I don’t think that’s a healthy situation to be in.

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‘It should not be determined by one person’s resources – you are giving one side a stronger voice than the other.’

The official referendum period, with stricter spending rules, does not start until May 30 – despite the fact that both sides have been campaigning hard for well over a year.

‘It’s absolutely right that after the Scottish referendum there should be a review of spending rules,’ Mrs Runswick said.

The Weirs’ latest £2.5million pledge to Yes Scotland is their second to the pro-independence campaign, having previously donated £1million.

And the couple, who scooped Scotland’s biggest ever lottery jackpot, also gave £1million to the SNP, in 2011.

The couple have donated a total of £4.5m to SNP and the Yes campaign since their win - which is £1.5m more than had previously been estimated

In the new figures, Yes Scotland have also identified their other leading donors – although their contributions are dwarfed by the Weirs’.

Randall Foggie, from Kirkcaldy, a lifelong Nationalist and failed SNP council candidate, donated £60,000.

A further £50,000 came from Mark Shaw who, as well as being head of Hazeldene property group, is operations director at Yes Scotland. A respected businessman with a ‘no nonsense’ style, he was brought in by Yes Scotland a year ago to shore up the faltering campaign.

Property developer Dan Macdonald, who is on the Yes Scotland advisory board and has previously donated to the SNP, gave £50,000.

The other named donors are Norman Easton, who gave £10,000, and novelist and poet Mary McCabe, who contributed £8000.

Yes Scotland said a further 11,000 people gave donations of less than £7,500, which in total came to £473,000.

But Better Together said the dominance of the Weirs in the Yes Scotland balance sheets shows the campaign does not have the widespread support it claims.

It means almost 80 per cent of £4.9million funding for the separation campaign, headed by Alex Salmond centre, has come from just one source

The pro-independence campaign has received almost double the £2.8million Better Together reported in December.

However, if you take away the Weirs’ contribution, Better Together would have received more than £1million more.

Blair McDougall, director of the pro-Union Better Together campaign, said: ‘No- one would criticise the Weirs, who are long standing SNP supporters.

‘It is extraordinary that compared to the tens of thousands of small donations received by Better Together from our supporters, almost 80 per cent of Yes Scotland’s money comes from one source.

‘We now know why they have been hiding their donations for so long.

‘Whilst Better Together relies on the support of a broad mixture of large donors and thousands of ordinary people giving what they can, it is clear that the nationalists are almost completely dependent on one source of income.

The latest polls suggest one in three Scots support Salmond's bid for separation

‘With a new poll showing just one third of Scots support leaving the UK, these donor details confirm that Yes Scotland is little more than a front for Alex Salmond’s SNP.’

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government has failed to reveal where it found the money for the £1.25million White Paper.

Publishing and distributing the 649-page manifesto was funded out of taxpayers’ money - despite being full of SNP promises.

The Scottish Conservatives – who branded it the ‘biggest ever taxpayer-funded work of fiction’ – have twice asked which government department had to foot the bill.

However, Nicola Sturgeon, the Deputy First Minister who is also in charge of the referendum, has been unable to answer, giving another holding answer.

Gavin Brown MSP, Scottish Conservative finance spokesman, said: ‘The Scottish Government has now decided to give a holding answer to a holding answer, which is something of a new phenomenon.

‘I asked a very straightforward question two months ago about what budget the White Paper expenditure came from, because from reading the Scottish Government budget, it is not at all clear.

‘Either the SNP doesn’t know where the money came from or it’s simply unwilling to say.

‘Neither of those scenarios is acceptable, and the full costs and how they were paid for must be published as a matter of urgency.’

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: ‘The Scottish Government will respond to Mr Brown’s parliamentary question in due course. Ministers have been open and transparent regarding the costs involved.’

The Scottish Government will go into purdah on August 21 – meaning no new policies will be announced until after the referendum – but stricter rules come into force for the parties and campaigners this month.

The regulated period will run for 16 weeks from May 30 and Yes Scotland and Better Together will be restricted to spending £1.5million each.

The SNP will be allowed to spend £1.344million, Labour £834,000, the Tories £396,000, the Liberal Democrats £201,000, and the Greens – who support independence - £150,000.

Blair Jenkins, chief executive of Yes Scotland, said: ‘We greatly appreciate and are hugely encouraged by the thousands of people across Scotland who have made donations – both large and small – according to their financial means.

Mr and Mrs Weir declined to comment.