Blair to take on Scots Nationalists

12 April 2012

Prime Minister Tony Blair is to take on the Scottish Nationalists in a passionate justification of the case for Scotland remaining part of the UK.

In a fighting speech to the Scottish Labour Party, Mr Blair will attack the economic case for independence and appeal directly to the "shared values" which Scotland and England have in common.

Aides said Mr Blair would combine a "passionate" defence of Scotland's union with England with an equally passionate attack on the policies of the SNP.

"Scotland should be proud, optimistic and confident and at a time of momentous challenge we should work together, not apart, with common hopes and shared values," they said.

In a foretaste of what is intended as an all-out assault on the economic case for independence, Mr Blair wrote in The Scotsman: "It's a partnership based on history, shared values and a multitude of family links and relationships.

"More than 400,000 of the Scottish population were born in England, while more than twice as many Scots are now resident in England or Wales.

"So it seems a strange time to want to smash apart a union which is serving Scotland and the rest of the UK so well.

"It is certainly bewildering to set out on such a course on the flimsiest of economic cases."

Mr Blair's speech to Labour's Scottish conference comes as polls suggest his party is heading for a severe drubbing in the May elections for the Scottish Parliament.

Labour has never secured an outright majority of seats at Holyrood, and two opinion polls have suggested the party will fare worse than in 2003.

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