CONSERVATIVE Party members appear to be losing inter-est in the Union after just a couple of dozen of delegates turned out to hear a panel discussion on the subject at the party conference.

There were rows of empty seats in the main hall in Birmingham for the “Stronger, Fairer United Kingdom” event – which coincided with Boris Johnson’s fringe session and call to “chuck Chequers” – yesterday afternoon.

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The sparse numbers gathered to hear the panel which included Scottish Secretary David Mundell and Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley. Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns and Cabinet Office minister David Lidington also took part in the discussion.

But the low turn out sparked comments on social media from observers in Scotland.

Referring to a picture posted by Scots political writer Gerry Hassan of a near empty hall, Dorothy Bruce tweeted: “Shows how much the Union actually means to them. They’re only interested in our resources, not our well-being.”

A second remarked: “Speaks volumes.”

The almost empty hall is embarrassing to Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson who took the stage on Monday to appeal to activists to support the Union, and also to unite behind the PM’s Brexit plan.

Davidson declared “The Union that’s most important to us is our own: the Union of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.”

But judging by the low numbers at the event and the masses who turned out to hear Johnson, Tory members were keener to hear him denounce the Chequers plan than hear what Mundell had to say about the Union.

Earlier this year results of a poll found that voters in England would prefer to lose Scotland than Gibraltar if this was the cost of Brexit.

Pollsters from Panelbase asked more than 1000 people south of the Border for their views on a scenario in which the price of leaving the EU would be for the UK to be without Scotland or Northern Ireland, or Gibraltar.

Voters expressed most concern about Gibraltar, followed by Scotland and were least concerned about Northern Ireland opting to go.

Some 37% said losing Gibraltar would not be a price worth paying for Brexit, while 35% said losing Scotland would not be worth it. In terms of losing Northern Ireland just 31% said it was not a price worth paying for Brexit.

Speaking at yesterday’s event Mundell urged the Scottish Government to take a second independence referendum “off the table”.

He called on Nicola Sturgeon to snap out of her “constitutional Groundhog Day” and get on with the day job of running Scotland. The Cabinet minister also criticised Jeremy Corbyn for his decision not to rule out another independence vote. The Labour leader previously said he was “not ruling out” giving consent for a second referendum.

Responding to Mundell, SNP depute leader Keith Brown hit back: “The Tories are like a broken record, they can’t go five minutes without shouting about independence while demanding that nobody else speak about independence.”