POLICE Scotland have brought forward their Brexit contingency plans by two months, placing 300 officers on standby in case of protests and disruption at ports.

Deputy Chief Constable Will Kerr said there would be an “early reactivation” of Brexit contingency plans based on coping with the “reasonable worst case scenarios” of no-deal.

Officers will now be available to respond to incidents at short notice from early August, instead of mi-October as originally planned.

In a letter to the single force’s oversight body, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), DCC Kerr said the change would see also staff work in the control room at Bilston Glen in Midlothian.

Both Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson have said they would be willing to go for a no-deal Brexit if they became Prime Minister and could not strike a new deal with the EU.

While on standby, the officers will also be used to support other policing operations across the country during what is expected to be a busy summer period.

The force cited the recent climate change protests in the North Sea and Edinburgh as an example of the kind of event to which the standby officers could be sent.

Police Scotland first put 400 officers on standby in mid-March to cope with Brexit, but they were stood down in mid-May, when the deadline was moved to October 31.

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DCC Kerr said: “While not responding to Brexit-related issues during that time, these officers played a critical role in allowing us to police many significant events, such as major football games and public protests.

“They were also deployed to local policing duties such as high-risk missing person cases, investigating priority warrants and assisting with the police response to high profile crimes.

“We have now decided on an early reactivation of our Brexit contingency plans because we have been experiencing an unprecedented number of large scale events, some of which are taking place at extremely short notice, for example, recent environmental protest activity in the North Sea and Edinburgh.

“This type of continued activity will have a significant impact on an already demanding summer period and having these officers available will give us an enhanced capacity to respond to greater policing demands.

“Our principal focus is, and will remain, the safety of the citizens of Scotland.”

Officers assigned to Brexit duty will be drawn from local, national and back office posts, and will not be notified of their shift changes.

The Bilston Glen call centre will help coordinate the response Brexit-related problems on behalf of Scotland’s three Regional Resilience Partnerships, which include councils, emergency services and other public sector bodies.

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SNP Justice secretary Humza Yousaf welcomed the”prudent, sensible approach”, but said the UK Government should pick up the bill “in full”.

He said: “The Scottish Government is carefully considering the implications of leaving the EU and intensive preparation is underway, including our work with SPA and Police Scotland.

“The reality is the UK is not, and cannot be, ready for a no-deal EU exit on 31 October.

“Such an outcome would inevitably cause very significant disruption to the lives of ordinary citizens and businesses, as well as long-term harm to our economy.

“We will continue to press the UK Government to ensure this is avoided by taking no-deal off the table, while working on preparing for all eventualities.”