Former Chancellor Alistair Darling has described the independence referendum campaign as the “biggest single fight of his life”.
The leader of the pro-UK Better Together movement said the banking crisis he dealt with six years ago paled into insignificance in comparison.
Mr Darling, who launched a new billboard poster pressing the positive case for the union yesterday, claimed it was the “patriotic” duty of Scots to reject separation on September 18.
He brushed off rumours he was about to be ousted as the figurehead for the No campaign and said he would be at the “forefront” of its work for the next four months.
Mr Darling said he had strengthened his team by bringing in Labour MPs and MSPs including Jim Murphy, Douglas Alexander, Kezia Dugdale and Jenny Marra for the final leg.
And he insisted he was “very confident” that Better Together would deliver a No vote in the referendum despite the nationalist surge in recent opinion polls.
Mr Darling said: “This is the biggest single fight I have been involved in – it even makes the banking crisis pale into relative insignificance.
“The fight is to convince a majority of our fellow Scots that the right and patriotic thing to do is to vote for Scotland to be part of the UK.
“It builds on links and connections which means people will be better off than they ever would be if we break apart.”
Mr Darling claimed the “positive vision” outlined by Better Together stood in stark contrast to the “very negative and bleak outlook” put forward by the nationalists.
“We will not be stopped from asking hard-headed questions of people who repeatedly refuse to answer the very questions on which this referendum will be decided,” he added.
“Whether it is on currency, oil reserves, jobs, pensions and welfare, it is not negativity campaigning, it is reality campaigning.