THE support given to Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy by EU leaders could hasten the end of the SNP’s “love affair with the EU”, the party’s former deputy leader has said.

Jim Sillars, a veteran Eurosceptic, suggested many in his party would become disillusioned with the EU after its senior figures continued to back Rajoy despite a brutal crackdown by the Spanish police on Catalan voters taking part in Sunday’s independence referendum.

Sillars spoke out after the European Commission indicated it “trusted in the leadership’’ of Rajoy less than 24 hours after images of Spanish police brutality against Catalan voters shocked the world.

More than 800 people were treated in hospital after Spain’s Guardia Civil beat voters with batons and fired rubber bullets into crowds of people trying to protect polling stations.

Many SNP members and parliamentarians who were in Barcelona to observe the referendum witnessed the violence.

But yesterday, after the results showed some 90 per cent of Catalans who voted had voted for independence, the European Commission came down on Spain’s side, underlining that had the referendum gone ahead with with Spain’s consent Catalonia would be outside the EU if it pursued independence.

It tweeted: “We trust leadership @marianorajoy to manage difficult process in full respect of Spanish Const&of fund.rights of citizens enshrined therein/

“We call on all relevant players to now move very swiftly from confrontation to dialogue. Violence can never be an instrument in politics.

“Beyond purely legal aspects: the Commission believes that these are times for unity and stability, not divisiveness and fragmentation.”

It added: “Legal position: If referendum were to be organised in line with the Spanish Const. = territory leaving would find itself outside of EU.”

The SNP strongly campaigned for a Remain vote in 2016, helping to persuade Scots to deliver 62 per cent support to stay in the EU. The party continues to back an independent Scotland taking full EU membership.

But Sillars said yesterday: “I hope those in the Scottish National Party who have been having a long love affair with European Union will smell the coffee and wake up. That the European Union centre in Brussels has no regard for democracy is nothing new.”

He added: “If [the SNP] have a rethink now, it’s been a long time coming and I would say the quicker the better.”

Jonathon Shafi, co-founder of the Radical Independence Campaign, echoed Sillars’ comments. He said many independence supporters were angry at the European Commission’s response to the violence.

“Anecdotally, you can clearly see on social media real reaction to the way the European Commission is dealing with the Catalan issue and this will lead to some fairly major consequences, particularly for the SNP. People do really expect sides to be taken on this.”

He added: “I think there will be a move towards saying you can be in favour of independence and not be in favour of the European Union.”

He said: “My position since the EU referendum is that to hinge the question of Scottish independence to Brexit is a mistake.

“Before Catalan even happened a huge number of people who voted Yes also voted Leave. Now that the European Commission has not only not condemned the Spanish state’s actions but came out with a supportive statement [towards] Spain, this will create a new debate inside the independence movement in Scotland about the EU.

Professor Michael Keating, of the Centre for Constitutional Change, pointed out there was already some antipathy among some Yes supporters towards the EU after the European Commission’s then chief Jose Manuel Barroso said ahead of the 2014 referendum that it would be “extremely difficult for an independent Scotland” to join the EU.