Cameron’s warning cry against ‘foreign’ Scotland
PRIME Minister David Cameron has claimed Scots do not want to live or work in a “foreign country” after independence.
He was speaking as he met secondary school pupils in Lockerbie, about 20 miles from the border with England.
The union means people on both sides benefit from the “precious asset” of London, the Tory leader said.
“Of course I am deeply concerned that we get the right result,” he said during a visit to Lockerbie Ice Rink.
“Alex Salmond is making an extraordinary argument. London is an enormous and precious asset for the whole of the UK, and many Scots benefit from London’s hub status and from working and investing in London and from the investment from London into Scotland.
“Now surely we should be making the most out of that connectivity, rather than separating ourselves from it.
“People in Scotland say to me ‘I’ve got children working or studying in London’, and people in London say to me ‘I’ve got children working or studying in Scot- land’. Do we really want to have a situation where they are working or studying in a foreign country?”
Lockerbie Academy recently voted 70 per cent in favour of remaining in the UK in a mock referendum.
Senior pupils will get a chance
London is an enormous and precious asset for the whole of the UK. The Prime Minister speaking during
a visit to Lockerbie Ice Rink.
to vote in a major poll for the first time after the Scottish Parliament agreed to extend the voting franchise to 16 and 17-year-olds for the referendum.
The most recent national poll suggests 44 per cent support independence and 56 per cent back remaining part of the UK.
Earlier, the Prime Minister pledged to deliver more powers to Holyrood if there is a No vote on September 18.
It would be “desirable” to legislate in the first year of the first Westminster parliament, he told the BBC.
“I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t happen very early in the parliament,” he said.
“The only reason I haven’t given a specific pledge is each of the parties has got to set out their plans, we need to have a general election, we need to see the result of that election and then if I was prime minister I’d want to try and proceed as I have done so far on the basis of building consensus.”
The Prime Minister was on the last leg of his two-day visit to Scotland, also taking in a visit to an Army barracks in Glasgow on Thursday.