Holyrood business should be suspended for the final week of the European Union (EU) referendum campaign, the Scottish Liberal Democrats have said.

The party's business manager Mike Rumbles will request the suspension at a meeting of the Scottish Parliament's business bureau, which agrees the parliamentary programme.

Mr Rumbles said the move would allow MSPs to campaign in the crucial final days before the vote on June 23.

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The UK Parliament is due to break up for recess a week before the in/out referendum, returning on June 27.

The Scottish Parliament did not sit in the 28 days leading up to 2014's referendum on Scottish independence.

Mr Rumbles said: "Like the independence referendum, the EU referendum will shape the future of our country forever.

"We will choose either to remain in the EU and lead Europe or cut ties with our friends and neighbours and go it alone.

"This will impact on jobs, on our universities, on the NHS and other public services. It is right that this debate gets the attention it demands.

"It was right that the Scottish Parliament did not sit in the weeks before the independence referendum.

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"This gave MSPs and staff at Holyrood the opportunity to get out there and make the case for Better Together or the Yes campaign.

"There is a month to go until the EU poll and no-one is suggesting that we suspend Holyrood until this question is resolved.

"But there is a strong case for the final week of the EU campaign to be about our place in Europe and nothing else."

Mr Rumbles called on the SNP to work with other parties to agree the move, accusing the nationalists of "carping from the sidelines" in the debate over Brexit.

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