SCOTTISH farmers will lose out on £2 billion of funding if European Union subsidies are replaced by a single UK-wide scheme post-Brexit, the SNP have warned.

The party said calculations from Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) revealed that if Scotland received the same per capita funding as the UK average, the reduction in funding for Scotland would be just under €2.3bn.

Agricultural subsidies dominated Scottish debate on Brexit last week after First Secretary of State Damian Green, in effect Theresa May’s deputy, suggested a standard scheme, controlled by Westminster, would be needed to prevent different systems from operating in various parts of the UK.

At First Minister’s Questions on Thursday Nicola Sturgeon said Green had “given the game away” in terms of a Brexit power grab by signalling his intention to hold on to agricultural subsidy powers coming from Brussels.

Scotland’s population is about 10 per cent of the UK total, but currently Scottish farmers receive 16 per cent of the UK’s overall common agricultural policy (CAP) funding under the EU system, including 85 per cent of less-favoured area payments which are given to farmers in remote areas and where the land is difficult to cultivate.

Calculations from Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) said: “If Scotland received the same per capita funding as the UK average, the reduction in funding for Scotland would be €2,298,361,973.92; if it received the same per capita funding as Wales, the reduction in funding in Scotland would be €60,245,663.63. Finance is allocated over the period from 2014-20.”

Maree Todd, SNP MSP, who represents the Highlands and Islands, said: “While the Scottish Government is not opposed in principle to agreeing UK-wide frameworks where powers are returning from Brussels, that must be agreed by mutual agreement.

“For the Tories to imply that the world would simply stop turning unless agriculture is controlled from Westminster is complete nonsense.

“On the one hand the Tories say Scotland should use its devolved powers to mitigate Westminster’s welfare cuts, but on the other the prospect of the Scottish Government using its powers to subsidise its own sheep farmers is somehow wrong.

“This is complete double standards and we need to put a stop to the Tories’ continued attempts to centralise power in London to the detriment of our rural economy. It is clear the Tories cannot be trusted to act in the interests of Scotland’s farmers and crofters.”

It also emerged yesterday that the Scottish Conservatives could support SNP amendments to the UK Government’s flagship Brexit legislation.

Deputy leader Jackson Carlaw and Tory constitution spokesman Adam Tomkins will meet the Brexit minister Michael Russell this week to discuss Scottish Government concerns over the EU (Withdrawal) Bill.

The legislation, designed to transpose EU law into British law, will see EU responsibilities in devolved areas initially transferred to Westminster.

The UK Government said this will allow common frameworks to be created ahead of further devolution, but the SNP administration has said this amounts to a “power grab”.

Scottish ministers say they cannot recommend that the Scottish Parliament gives its backing to the Bill in its current form.

Russell has said both the Scottish and Welsh governments intend to put forward amendments to the proposed legislation.

Speaking during a television interview, Carlaw said: “We don’t believe it’s the design nor the desire to have this so-called power grab they visualise, but then we want to work to see if there are amendments they are proposing which we can support.

“And whether or not together we can actually find a way to ensure that the legislative consent motion is something the Scottish Government feel able to support.”

The meeting follows a debate at Holyrood last week in which Russell insisted the Bill as it stands would “alter permanently the fundamental principle of devolution”.

“I now understand I think, I want to get just a little bit more understanding still, as to why [Russell] believes that that is the case,” Carlaw said.

“It has never been the intention, I have never been in any doubt about that, and I have never heard any UK minister who has ever suggested that it is as they have characterised it.

“But if that is how they feel and they have amendments that they want to bring forward with the Welsh Government, and we may have Conservative amendments that we want to propose ourselves actually, to ensure that what we have then is a Bill that’s going to best take matters forward.”

In July Environment Secretary Michael Gove said farmers will only get subsidies after Brexit if they do more to protect the environment.