A Scottish far-right group could become the second neo-Nazi organisation to be banned in Britain under proposals being weighed up by Whitehall.

Scottish Dawn, which describes itself as "a patriotic society for the defence of our race and nation" was established earlier this year.

The group was formed shortly after another group, National Action (NA), was classified as a terrorist organisation after celebrating the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox at the hands of a right wing extremist.

But suspicions that some its followers have simply swapped membership of one extremist organisation for another to circumvent the ban have prompted the Home Office to consider whether the new group should be outlawed too.

Scottish Dawn's first public appearance was at a demonstration about housing for refugees in Alloa in March.

Members waved bright yellow flags displaying a black symbol known as the "life rune", which was also used in Nazi propaganda.

But since then, investigators have been closely studying the group's activities.

One police source claims that some members have already stopped waving the Scottish Dawn from flag at public events for fear it might attract the attention of the security services.

Scottish Dawn's website does not refer to violence or white supremacy, but invokes a Nazi philosophy by using the slogan "blood and soil", which implies that ethnicity is based solely on blood descent.

The rallying cry was chanted by white nationalists during the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month.

Investigators believe National Action has followed what could be called "the al-Muhajiroun model".

Once Anjem Choudary's network was classified as a terror group in 2004, some of its members simply dropped the group's name to dodge the restrictions placed on it.

Choudary frustrated authorities for years, flouting the ban by rebranding his group. He was jailed last year.

Detective Chief Superintendent Gerry McLean, who heads Police Scotland's Organised Crime & Counter Terrorism Unit (OCCTU), said: "National Action is the first domestic extremist group to have been proscribed by the Home Secretary and there is no place in Scotland for these types of extreme right wing views.

"Where we identify instances of new groups or individuals who have broken away from National Action we will work with partners and our communities to target and disrupt those involved."