'Tory government playing English card'
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has accused the Conservative-led government of pushing the country towards collapse by playing "the English card".
Brown warns the country remains on “life support” because Prime Minister David Cameron has given up saving the 308-year-old union.
“If the United Kingdom collapses, it will not be because a majority of Scots are hell-bent on leaving but because the UK government is giving up on saving it”, Brown wrote in a Guardian column.
The former premier’s stark criticism follows a plan by the 10 Downing Street to limit the voting rights of Scottish MPs at Westminster. Brown calls the move as intending to divide England and Scotland.
“No union can survive without unionists and, after an election in which, to head off UKIP, the Conservative and Unionist party presented itself as the English Nationalist party, it is clear that the union is on life support … It is London’s equivocation over Scotland that is becoming the greater risk to the UK,” Brown said.
The comments are strongest since the prime minister announced plans to restrict the voting rights of Scottish MPs. Brown was so enraged by his successor’s announcement that he telephoned the cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, to warn that Cameron was handing a gift to the SNP.
In his Guardian article, Brown has accused both the Tories and the SNP of resorting to a “sectarian war of words” as they both push for Scottish and English vetoes. He also pointed to the Tory plan to block Scottish MPs from voting on English-only matters at Westminster – the so-called English votes for English laws.
The former prime minister calls for the union to be saved through the creation of a cross-party constitutional convention to bind the UK’s four constituent parts with a common statement of values. He also wants an agreement to bind all future UK governments to honoring “basic social and economic rights” such as healthcare and pensions.
SKL/SKL
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