New figures reveal the YES Scotland campaign appears to be almost totally funded by the EuroMillions winners Chris and Colin Weir.
YES is an alliance of the Scottish Green Party, the Scottish National Party, Scottish Socialist Party, and other groups that believe Scotland should be an independent country. The campaign began in Edinburgh on May 25, 2012, and YES supporters hope to convince Scottish citizens to say "yes" to a break away from the rest of the UK in the Scottish independence referendum later this year.
The Weirs won the £161m EuroMillions jackpot in July 2012. Since then they have made generous donations to many charitable causes, but their avid support of the "yes" vote has resulted in so much criticism they felt impelled to defend their actions in a recent open letter to the Scottish newspapers stating: "As lifelong supporters of independence, it would be strange if we did not support the YES Scotland campaign. So that is what we have done, nothing more and nothing less."
YES says it has received over £3million in donations in the past year. Two hefty cash injections from the Weirs account for £2.5 million of the donated funds.
The campaign director for the opposing Better Together campaign, Blair McDougall, said: "We now know why they [YES Scotland] 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."
