A former SNP leader has attacked plans to introduce gay marriage, branding them "a step towards fascism".

Gordon Wilson told BBC Scotland that the state should not be asserting a superior claim over what citizens do or think.

A bill to bring in same-sex marriage forms part of the Scottish government's new legislative programme.

Mr Wilson will criticise the plans in a speech to the party conference later this week.

... But Mr Wilson, who led the Nationalists in the 1980s, will tell MSPs they face losing their seats if they "scorn the electorate".

Speaking to BBC Scotland, he said a consultation on the issue had shown the public were not in favour of legislation.

Mr Wilson said political correctness was now occupying a position "to which it has no right" and when the state moves into legislating on same-sex marriage it becomes "a step towards fascism".

He added: "What you have to watch is when the state believes that it has a superior claim to tell its own citizens what to do and what to think.

"And that is what is beginning to happen here."