Former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy claims that Scottish independence would inflict “huge damage” on the Highland economy.
The MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber will tell a public meeting in Portree tomorrow night that losing the principle of flat rate charging across the whole UK for services like Royal Mail, telecommunications and electricity supply would hit the region.
Mr Kennedy said: “While these arguments affect a relatively small proportion of the Scottish population, albeit within a vast landmass, it is essential that we are not crowded out of the debate by louder voices.
“The inescapable fact is that cross-subsidy in favour of peripheral areas can be carried a lot more easily within an economy of 60 million people than one of five million.
“The impact of separating from the UK would be disproportionately high for places that depend, for many key services, on the postage stamp principle.”
He will add: “I have spent much of my political life arguing for equality of costs and services for rural areas as a matter of fairness.
“But breaking up existing arrangements within the UK would undermine that principle and create a completely different set of circumstances.”