As Scots consider independence, rest of UK gets nervous

Ahead of the referendum, Britain's prime minister and main opposition leader head to Scotland to persuade voters that unity is in their long-term interests.

Scottish first minister Alex Salmond, front, poses with supporters of the Yes Campaign in Edinburgh on Monday. The nationalist leader said there was nothing new in London's offer of greater powers to Scotland and that the unionist campaign was falling apart ahead of next week's referendum. Russell Cheyne / ReutersShow less

LONDON // Britain’s prime minister and main opposition leader cancelled their weekly showdown in parliament on Wednesday to unite in a last-minute attempt to persuade Scots to reject independence.

In a joint statement on Tuesday with Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour Party, and the deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, who leads the Liberal Democrats, David Cameron said “the right place for us to be tomorrow is in Scotland”.

They will be campaigning separately.

In another move to woo voters, the Scottish flag, the Saltire, will fly over Mr Cameron’s Downing Street office until after the vote.

“There is a lot that divides us, but there’s one thing on which we agree passionately: the United Kingdom is better together,” the leaders said. “Our message to the Scottish people will be simple: ‘We want you to stay.’”

After two years in which polls have barely shifted from showing a clear vote against independence, the race has tightened in the final days of campaigning before the September 18 referendum.

An opinion poll at the weekend showed the Yes campaign had overtaken the No side, findings that sent financial markets tumbling.

The trip to Scotland was agreed between Mr Cameron and Mr Miliband in parliament on Tuesday afternoon, when the two men met in private.

For Mr Cameron, the question of how much campaigning to do in Scotland is a delicate one, given the unpopularity of his Conservative Party north of the border. The Tories hold just one out of 59 Scottish seats in the British parliament.

“If you believe passionately in an argument then you want to make it,” Mr Cameron’s spokesman, Jean-Christophe Gray, said. “The United Kingdom together has a proud history and the prime minister and others argue and very much hope it will have a proud future together.”

As the No campaign has begun to struggle in the polls, it has called in its biggest guns. Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown On Monday broke years of political silence to offer Scots more say over their domestic affairs so long as they reject independence.

In a speech at a miner’s welfare club in Loanhead, south of Edinburgh, Mr Brown pledged to put before parliament by January a “radical” bill giving Scots control over welfare, taxation and the economy.

On Tuesday that offer was called into question when it emerged that while the governing Conservatives and Liberal Democrats agreed on his timetable, they were still discussing with Labour the details of what more power would involve.

Speaking outside the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh on Tuesday, the leaders of Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in Scotland said there was agreement on the timetable for transferring more power from London, just not on which powers to transfer.

“This is a strong plan that the people of Scotland can see, touch and feel,” Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said. “We will reach a consensus where we can,” said Johann Lamont, her Labour counterpart.

“I’m certainly not panicking. I’m not panicking,” Ms Lamont said when asked about her shift in strategy less than 10 days before the vote. “Every instinct of the Scottish people is to stay in the UK.”

The series of interventions in the closing days of the campaign comes after months in which politicians outside Scotland have barely engaged with the issue of independence, seeing the vote as a foregone conclusion. Mr Cameron did not watch either of the two televised debates last month.

Until two weeks ago, the official line of the No campaign was “no complacency”. On Tuesday it was the Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who heads the Yes movement, who used those words.

“There’s no complacency, we’re working flat out,” he said. “This is the day the No campaign finally fell apart at the seams.”

The proposal announced on Monday is simply a repackaging of measures announced in the spring, he added.

A monthly survey by TNS published on Tuesday confirmed the swing toward independence, with the No lead shrinking to a single percentage point from 13 points in the previous poll. There was 39 per cent backing for staying in the UK, with 38 per cent of people wanting independence and 23 per cent undecided.

“Both sides will now be energised to make the most of the last few days of the campaign and try and persuade the undecided voters,” Tom Costley, head of TNS Scotland, said. “It’s too close to call.”

* Bloomberg News