UK split would cut me in half, says Benn
VETERAN Labour politician Tony Benn has hit out at the SNP’s independence plans, warning the end of the Union would ‘divide him in half with a knife’.
The former Cabinet minister described Nationalism as a ‘mistake’ and warned of the dire consequences of separation.
Mr Benn, whose mother Margaret Eadie was a famous theologian from Glasgow, said: ‘I have always been very strongly in favour of the Scottish parliament and devolution, and I think it’s been a big success.
‘If Scotland wants to be independent they have the absolute right to do so. But I think Nationalism is a mistake. And I am half Scots and feel it would divide me in half with a knife.
‘The thought that my mother would suddenly be a foreigner would upset me very much.’
Mr Benn, who is making an appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe festival on Tuesday with his show Tony Benn: Will and Testament, revealed that he had lived in Scotland for a short time as a child and the country – and its inhabitants – still held a dear place in his heart.
He added: ‘I remember London was flooded in 1928 when I was three. We had to move to Glasgow for a year.
‘I’ve always felt very much at home in Scotland. They are very serious and friendly people.’
The 87-year-old, whose grandfather was a Liberal MP for Glasgow Govan, added that the strikes and sit-ins of the Clydeside shipbuilding industry during the 1970s had played a hugely influential role on his politics.