Darling: SNP and Ukip ‘two-sides of same coin’

ALISTAIR Darling has claimed the SNP and the anti-EU Ukip are “two sides of the same coin” as he accused both parties of using blame as a campaign tactic.

Mr Darling, who led the anti-independence Better Together campaign, said that falling living standards had allowed nationalist parties to thrive.

The former Labour Chancellor suggested that the electoral success of Ukip and the 45 per cent of the vote for Yes in the referendum was partly due to people’s anger at years of cuts to public services.

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He said: “The Scottish referendum was fought against a background of six years of austerity.

“Many people have felt their living standards slip. Whereas in the past people expected to do better than their parents, and for their children to do better still, it is no longer the case.

“In that scenario it is all too easy for a populist movement to blame someone else and promise that ridding ourselves of the other will make it better. To that extent, Ukip and the SNP are two sides of the same coin.”

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