Connery raised cost fear over campaign

FORMER James Bond actor Sean Connery was happy to support Westminster plans for Scottish devolution – but only if it did not cost him money, previously classified documents suggest.

The Hollywood star, inset, was said to have been happy to heed Tony Blair’s 1997 call to back the “yes” vote, granting greater powers to Scotland.

But he was concerned that any campaigning in person would see him at the mercy of residency rules, meaning he would have to pay tax if he stayed more than 90 days in the UK during the year – something it was suggested he felt certain ethnic minorities did not have to do.

Scottish-born Connery, who spent much of his time in the United States, Spain and the Bahamas, was described by Cabinet

minister Peter Mandelson as “very keen” to support the Prime Minister, due to “several” conversations between himself and the actor in May and June 1997.

In a memo to Jonathan Powell, Mr Blair’s chief of staff, Mr Mandelson wrote: “But he [Connery] is concerned that his scope to help will be badly constrained by the residency rules. “He sees this as iniquitous to him personally, and claims that certain other individuals and indeed ethnic groups [he mentioned the ‘Arabs’] are not subject to the same strictures.” Mr Mandelson suggested Mr Blair contact the actor, or meet him when the pair were next in London at the same time. Connery would go on to be a prominent supporter of independence, despite not living in Scotland. Connery, later Sir Sean, died in 2020 aged 90.