Actor Alan Cumming has said he hopes Brexit will expedite Scottish independence.

Cumming, best known for roles in Emma and Goldeneye, said a leaked Whitehall dossier laying out the potential impact of a no-deal Brexit could lead to a hastened break-up of the Union.

The memo, dismissed as “scaremongering” by a Government minister, warns of food and medicine shortages, as well as chaos at Britain’s ports.

Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming said he hopes Brexit leads to Scottish independence (PA)

Scottish-American Cumming, who campaigned for independence during the 2014 referendum, told BBC Scotland’s The Edit: “In my crystal ball, which is tinged with my political leanings, I would hope that Brexit… and if the effects of Brexit and that leaked memo the other day with the medical supply issue, food shortages, high prices and even civil unrest all being the potential outcome, will hopefully further and quicken Scottish independence because that, for me, would be the only positive thing to come out of this debacle.”

Cumming, 54, holds dual Scottish and American citizenship and lives in New York with his husband, Grant Shaffer.

He argued that Scotland is treated like a policy “guinea pig” by Westminster and he still feels “as passionately” about Scottish independence as he did during the referendum, which the No side won with 55% of the vote.

He said: “I feel people were duped the last time and told they wouldn’t be able to be in the EU. I feel more than ever that, if you look at Brexit as another example of Westminster dictating a policy that Scotland didn’t want, that’s really what independence is all about.

“I think the people of Scotland should be able to decide for themselves what they want to do. If they want to be in the EU, they should be in the EU and there are generations of people who have seen, myself included, from the Poll Tax onwards, as a young man realising that Scotland has been used as an experimental ground, as guinea pigs for Westminster policy.

“I just feel that enough is enough.”