Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has claimed that almost one million jobs in Scotland are linked to being a member of the UK.
The Labour MP continued to take a more high profile role in the campaign against independence yesterday, producing new figures and outlining five key benefits of the Union.
The tactic evoked the memory of New Labour’s famous pledge card from the 1997 general election, in which Tony Blair and Mr Brown made five promises to voters.
Speaking at London School of Economics last night, he said the five “patriotic” reasons for voting No were UK-linked jobs, UK-guaranteed pensions, UK-funded healthcare, UK-interest rate decisions, and UK-wide neighbours.
He unveiled a calculation by Strathclyde University professor Brian Ashcroft that 962,000 jobs – about 40% of all posts in Scotland – were linked to the Union.
It was reached by adding 313,000 jobs in UK firms, 247,000 posts in companies exporting south of the border, 65,000 UK Government jobs, 9,500 dependent on UK public sector contracts, 3,000 research and development roles in higher education that are financed by UK grants – and another 27,000 “spin off” jobs created by all this economic activity.
Mr Brown’s speech follows comments made to Westminster journalists on Monday, in which he said Scotland’s vote was “changing Britain forever”, and controversially called on David Cameron to debate with Alex Salmond.
Last night he said: “The referendum vote is not a choice between Scotland and Britain but a choice between two visions of Scotland’s future – the patriotic vision that seeks a strong Scottish Parliament as part of the UK versus the nationalist vision that would break all political links with the rest of Britain.
“An honest patriotism starts from our love of Scotland and our support for a strong Scottish Parliament that addresses rather than ignores basic realities, puts the needs of Scottish people before the dogma of independence and seeks to carve out the best future opportunities for young Scots.”
SNP MSP Kenneth Gibson responded for the Nationalists, saying: “These are ridiculous claims from Gordon Brown – after a Yes vote Scotland will continue to have a close and positive relationship with our neighbours, on an open border basis, and the rest of the UK will remain our biggest trading partner.
“On Mr Brown’s absurd logic, Canada should join with the United States and be governed from Washington.”