THERESA May will “steamroller” Scotland and ignore the wishes of Holyrood if the Conservatives are returned with an enhanced majority, Nicola Sturgeon has warned.

The First Minister said Mrs May wanted to “crush dissent and silence opposition” north of the border, but admitted the polls suggested she was already on course for a sizeable victory.

Launching her party’s local election campaign in Edinburgh, the SNP leader said: “I don't want to see a Tory government but I can read the opinion polls as well as anybody else can."

The First Minister went on: "The general election is about making sure the Tories don't get to crush dissent and silence opposition, and steamroller over Scotland, how Scotland has voted and how the Scottish Parliament has voted.

"It is about making sure Scotland's voice is heard and independence is certainly an aspect of that, but it's bigger than that as well.

"It is about making sure we don't allow the Tories to do the social and economic damage to Scotland that they have done in recent years."

However with the SNP holding 54 of 59 Scottish seats to the Tories’ one, it is unclear how the vote in Scotland would change the Tory landslide predicted by the polls.

Tory David Mundell, who is defending a majority of 798 over the SNP, also launched his bid to hold his Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweeddale constituency.

Campaigning in Annan, the Scottish Secretary said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would “sell pro-UK Scots out in a heartbeat”, by forming an alliance with the SNP if the numbers allowed.

Mr Mundell said: “He would happily do a deal with the SNP to get into power - after all, we know he is 'absolutely fine' with a second referendum.

“We go into this election in good heart and with a positive message - to stand up for all those people in Scotland who don't want a second referendum and who, instead, want to see Scotland back on track. Only the Scottish Conservatives can deliver on that."

Also trying to save his party’s sole Scottish seat, Labour MP Ian Murray launched his campaign to defend his 2637-vote majority over the SNP in Edinburgh South.

He said the country faced an "abyss" under the Tories, and accused Mrs May of holding a "general election while Rome burns", instead of securing the "best and softest" Brexit deal.

Around three-quarters of Edinburgh South voted for Remain last June.

Mr Murray said of the Tories: "We need to get rid of them. We need a Labour government."

A beneficiary of mass tactical voting by LibDem and Tory supporters in 2015, Mr Murray said his chances of retaining the seat were “strong”.

He said: “Another Conservative MP merely bolsters a hard Brexit, an SNP MP bolsters an independence referendum. People in this constituency understand that."

A critic of Mr Corbyn, Mr Murray refused to serve in the shadow cabinet, but said he was ready to be a minister if Mr Corbyn were to become Prime Minister.

“When we get a Labour government, if asked I'll serve, and every other Labour MP will serve in that government as well. One bad day of Labour in government is worth 1,000 good Tory days and we've seen that already since 2015."

Campaigning with Mr Murray in Morningside, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said he had been written off in 2010, when he became the candidate just weeks from polling day.

She said: “Nobody thought he was going to win then. Five years on, the same scenario. Everybody said he was going to lose. A majority in the hundreds turned into the thousands, because of the kind of MP he is for this constituency, because of the work he's done."

The Scottish LibDems announced their election campaign manager would be MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton, who faced criticism over high election spending in his Holyrood seat last year.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said he was "honoured" and said the LibDems had a "great grassroots organisation that is hungry for victory".

Meanwhile Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie continued his run of bad luck with livestock, after he was attacked by a ram on a farm in Kelty.

He was forced to wrestle the animal by the horns on a visit that was supposed to provide a photo of him with a new born lamb.

In the 2016 Holyrood election, Mr Rennie famously gave a TV interview at a city farm in Edinburgh as two amorous pigs cavorted in the background.

The LibDems slumped from 11 Scottish MPs to one in 2015, with just Alistair Carmichael holding on in Orkney and Shetland, but has its eye on five targets currently held by the SNP.

Mr Rennie said: "Our optimistic agenda is pro-UK, pro-EU and progressive.

"Since June last year we've been taking seats from the Conservatives, Labour and the SNP campaigning for a Britain that is open, tolerant and united. From Edinburgh to the Highlands, we're relishing the opportunity to take the fight to the opposition parties and fully intend to win seats at this election."