Scottish Resistance stage protest at Tunnock's factory

PRO-INDEPENDENCE activists staged a brief protest outside the Tunnock's factory a week after the firm advertised its best-selling biscuit as the Great British Tea Cake.

Scottish Resistance activists (left to right) Gwen Sinclair, Sean Clerkin and James Scott protest outside Tunnock's factory in Uddingston. Picture: PA

Tunnock’s has been accused of severing its Scottish roots with the launch of its latest marketing campaign in England.

Three people from the Scottish Resistance group, led by activist Sean Clerkin, stood outside the factory building in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, with a lion rampant flag and handed out tea cakes made by rival Scottish firm Lees.

They were met by heckles from members of the public and from biscuit workers arriving for their shift.

• READ MORE: Tunnock’s drop iconic branding to be more ‘British’

Managing director Boyd Tunnock is a Conservative voter and spoke out in favour of the Union during the 2014 referendum debate.

He said the London Underground advert did not signify a re-branding of the popular treat and was simply a nod to the hit BBC show the Great British Bake Off.

The family firm established in 1890 sells about 3.5 million tea cakes a week.

Veteran anti-poverty campaigner Mr Clerkin said: “In Scotland today we have 970,000 people living in relative poverty, we have one in four children living in poverty, and what we are saying is that people like him, who are multi-millionaires, and supporting the Tories as they do, are helping to keep Scots in poverty.”