A former deputy leader of the SNP has said he would refuse to vote for Scottish independence in a second referendum if it meant rejoining the European Union.

Jim Sillars, who played a prominent role in the 2014 Yes campaign, said he would abstain and warned Nicola Sturgeon that many Leave voters who backed independence in the last referendum would do the same.

He said he did not want to be governed by an “unelected elite” and accused the First Minister of behaving “hysterically” over her threat of another independence referendum if Scotland is pulled out of the EU single market alongside the rest of the UK.

The SNP would look “very silly” if it staged a second vote for this reason, only for Theresa May to achieve her aim of a comprehensive free trade deal with the EU, Mr Sillars warned.

With intense pressure mounting on Ms Sturgeon from party members and Mr Salmond to demand a second referendum, he said he “profoundly hope she finds a way of getting out of the corner she has boxed herself into.”

His intervention is a damaging blow the First Minister, alongside whom he campaigned in 2014, ahead of an expected announcement at next week’s SNP conference about the prospect of another vote.