George Osborne says he is “staggered” by the momentum of the Better Together campaign.
However, the Chancellor has warned against complacency from those who want to keep Scotland part of the Union and defended the UK Government and others against allegations of scaremongering.
It comes as First Minister Alex Salmond prepares to deliver a keynote speech today in which he will reference Robert Burns to brand the No campaign “a parcel o rogues”.
Mr Osborne said: “We have made a lot of progress in the last two years. The Unionist case is far stronger and better articulated than it was two years ago because we called the SNP’s bluff and said let’s have the referendum and challenged them to make the arguments for independence.
“Those arguments are turning out to be very thin and they can’t answer the most basic questions about the issue of currency.
“But we are very far from being complacent we’ve still got another year to go to the referendum and we’ve got to maintain the quality of the work and continue putting out detailed and well-argued analysis papers that enable the debate in Scotland to be carried out.”
A senior Downing Street source also defended publications such as the Scotland Analysis paper, saying they simply asked “pretty basic questions” but did not receive “convincing answers”.
Mr Salmond will latch on to reports that Better Together have described their campaign as Project Fear today and say negative campaigning will lead to a vote for independence.
He is expected to say: “Recently the parcel o rogues in the No campaign have been caught out big time in the nature of their arguments.
“All of this nonsense and much, much more is wrapped up in what the Better Together campaign themselves describe as Project Fear their confidence that they can scare people out of voting for independence.
“But scare stories give way to reason, and hope will always trump fear.”