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Better Together activists have been dealt a major blow with the defection of two high-profile members to the Yes Paisley campaign.

Former UWS Labour Party Group Chair Lauren Gilmour and Ferguslie activist Terry McTernan have quit the No campaign group and are now actively campaigning on behalf of Scottish independence.

Scottish Labour member Lauren, 22, led powerful protests against zero-hour contracts and fought for better pay and conditions for workers at the University of the West of Scotland.

And Terry, 34, was a Better Together activist for two years who campaigned hard for keeping Scotland in the UK on doorsteps in the town.

Lauren, of Paisley, said: “I was apprehensive about declaring a Yes vote because of the staunch ‘No’ position taken by the Labour party.

“But I found the ideas and arguments from the Yes campaign to be more convincing.

“The Yes campaign has been far more positive and as a young person, I feel more optimistic about becoming an independent country than remaining as part of the United Kingdom.

“After campaigning for the Labour Party in the European Parliament elections, it appeared to me, recently, after failing to receive information and emails from my local Constituency Labour Party that I had been blacklisted from the local party.

“I imagine there could be many more people in my position who are voting Yes, but feel unable to do so because of the culture of fear that exists in the party if you wander away from their line of thinking.”

Terry McTernan, 34, of Ferguslie in the town said: “I have worked for Better Together or No Thanks or whatever they are calling themselves this week.

“They are known as Project Fear and that fear is very real.

“I have seen what Project Fear is about. Their main planks of attack have been over the issue of money and EU membership, but these attacks are far from the actual truth and they know it.

“Scotland is net contributor to the UK. It more than pays its way. And European membership wouldn’t be refused to Scotland.

“I am ashamed to say that I belonged to the No camp and have joined Yes Paisley as a way of redeeming myself.

“And I have never had any issues with whatever party a person belongs to in regards to the independence referendum. I am not a fan of Alex Salmond or the SNP. I was Liberal voter and am now Green Party supporter.”

Yes activist and former member of the Scottish Youth Parliament, Drew McGowan, 21, of Paisley said: “These grassroots defections emphasise, and prove, one of the most important things about this debate: voting, or campaigning, for Yes does not make you a nationalist – it makes you a democrat.

“The independence movement is the biggest grassroots campaign that Scotland has ever seen. It encompasses SNP, Labour, Socialists, Greens and those who have never been a member of a party or campaigned before in their lives.”

A Better Together spokesman: “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but the vast majority of Scots are saying No Thanks to separation.”

However, the latest Indy polls show the No camp with 58 per cent with Yes voters on 42 per cent following Alex Salmond’s TV debate with Alistair Darling.