Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown claimed yesterday that Scotland’s referendum was “changing Britain for good” – as he urged David Cameron to debate with Alex Salmond.
He argued that the tradition of Westminster sovereignty was already “dead and buried”, and predicted that all major decisions in the future would now be made by voters in a referendum.
The Labour MP also criticised the campaign against independence as “patronising” and said that he believed some claims should be “withdrawn immediately”.
In his most significant intervention yet, Mr Brown outlined the historical significance of the debate in Scotland, and urged people in the rest of the UK to urgently “wake up”.
Speaking to journalists in Westminster for the first time since he left Downing Street in 2010, Mr Brown was asked whether Mr Cameron should debate with SNP leader Mr Salmond on independence.
“I think it would be a good idea if David Cameron did debate Alex Salmond, but I’m not involved in the negotiations,” he said.
The SNP branded the comments a “huge embarrassment” for Better Together leader Alistair Darling, who wants to debate with Mr Salmond.
Downing Street sources reiterated that Mr Cameron would not debate with the first minister last night.
Mr Brown told reporters that Britain had changed forever.
“All the talk in the last few weeks has been about political tremors and about earthquakes and about seismic shifts because of UKIP,” he said.
“In actual fact, Scotland is changing Britain for good.
“Just think about it, dead and buried is the idea of the unitary state now. Dead and buried actually is the idea of Westminster sovereignty.
“Dead and buried is the idea of the sovereignty of the Queen in parliament – that’s given way now to popular sovereignty where referendums will decide the biggest issues.
“And there is more to come. If Britain doesn’t wake up then there will be home rule for Scotland within the United Kingdom.”
Criticising the tactics of the pro-UK campaign, Mr Brown added: “If people come up to Scotland and say ‘Britain says no to sharing the currency, Britain says you are not going to have defence jobs, or Britain says you’re going to go bankrupt’.
“Or as happened last week, ‘Britain says if you vote for independence you’ll lose your fish and chips, pies and lose your holidays in Torremolinos’, in a patronising way that ought to be withdrawn immediately, then it’s obvious that the issue will become Scotland versus Britain.”