Ed Miliband: Independence won’t help working Scots

Miliband said his party would fight the SNP “toe to toe” during the referendum campaign.

During a speech in Glasgow, he argued a “fairer, more equal and more just United Kingdom” could best be created by retaining the Union.

Miliband highlighted his own ties with Scotland - his father did his Royal Navy training on the Firth of Forth - as he set out a “positive vision” for Scotland in the United Kingdom.

The Labour leader came north of the border less than a week after Alex Salmond launched his consultation on the independence referendum which he wants to hold in autumn 2014.

The Scottish National Party leader proposes that voters are asked: “Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?”

Today, Mr Miliband told an audience in Glasgow: “What is clear to me is Labour is going to show in the campaign that we will go shoulder to shoulder with Alex Salmond, toe to toe, on the issues of who can create a fairer Scotland, who can create a Scotland that is better for the working people of Scotland.”

He added: “This is not some argument simply about the dangers of separatism - although there are dangers - it’s a positive vision about how we create social justice in Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom.”

That, he said, was a case Prime Minister David Cameron “could not possibly make because this is not somebody who wants a fairer, more equal and more just United Kingdom”.

In a speech in London last week, Mr Salmond argued that an independent Scotland could be a “beacon for progressive opinion” for those south of the border.

However, Mr Miliband argued: “The best way to make this country fairer is to do it together, as one country.”

He continued: “Alex Salmond says he wants to set a progressive example. But there is nothing progressive about dividing people with the same needs, living on the same small island.”

Mr Miliband said he is a “challenger against a Government in Westminster which is wrong on the economy and has no vision for the United Kingdom”.

But he added that he is also “a challenger against a Government in Holyrood with a plan for separation which will not help the working people of Scotland”.

He said he is “determined to fight to make this whole country fairer”.

Mr Miliband acknowledged his party’s defeat in last year’s Holyrood elections, saying he came to Scotland with “humility about the scale of challenge for Labour, nine months after we lost the Scottish elections”.

He used his speech to set out the “case for a fair, just and equal United Kingdom, and Scotland as part of it”.

The Labour leader stressed it was “not a case based on fear of separatism” but was based on “hope for a more equal, more just, more progressive future for Scotland and the United Kingdom”.

Mr Miliband insisted he was making the case for retaining the United Kingdom because of his family history.

He said: “I have no doubt, even as we speak, the SNP are getting ready to say how dare I, as someone born and living in England, come here and join this argument.”

However, he said that because of his “personal history” he had “deep reasons to appreciate the strength of the United Kingdom”.

Mr Miliband recalled: “My parents came to our island as refugees from the Nazis. My father joined the British Navy. He did his training aboard HMS Valorous on the Firth of Forth.

“A Belgian, he fought fascism with people from every part of the United Kingdom. As I was growing up, he didn’t say to me ‘I came to England and then went to Scotland’. He said ‘I came to Britain’, the country that gave him and my mother shelter.”

That, he said, showed that Britain “has been a refuge to many and a cause to fight for”.

He went on: “If the people of Scotland decide to separate, as they can, it would not affect Scotland alone. It will affect all of us in the four nations of this country. That is why I am here today.”

With Scots being given a vote on the country’s constitution future, the Labour leader stressed it is the “people of Scotland, not just Alex Salmond” who should decide the rules and timing of the referendum.

While the SNP have not ruled out giving voters the option of backing more maximum devolution for Holyrood, Mr Miliband said the poll must be “based on one clear question that gives one clear answer”.

However, most of his speech was not about the processes involved in staging the referendum, which, he argued, Nationalists focused on “to avoid talking about the substance of separation”, but on the benefits of keeping the Union.

Mr Miliband argued more could be achieved with Scotland in the United Kingdom to make the whole country a better place.

He said: “I support Scotland as part of the United Kingdom, not because I believe Scotland is too poor or too weak to break away.

“I support Scotland as part of the United Kingdom for a profoundly different reason - because I think the interests of the working people of Scotland and the interests of the working people of the United Kingdom are better served in the United Kingdom.”

He highlighted growing unemployment, rising food and fuel prices, and said: “I see a country crying out for change. Inequality. Injustice. And talent betrayed.

“These are the problems facing people in Scotland, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In every part of the United Kingdom.

“So I ask you what is the most urgent task facing us? Putting up a border across the A1 and M74? Or the task of creating a more equal, just and fair society?”

Mr Miliband went on: “I say let’s confront the real divide in Britain. Not between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom. But between the haves and the have-nots.

“So I am not here to tell Scots that Scotland cannot survive outside the United Kingdom.

“I am here with the same call of Labour leaders down the ages, for a fairer, more just, more equal United Kingdom and we do that best together.”

Mr Miliband argued that Scotland and the UK did not have separate economies, and said if change did not happen across all of Britain, there was the risk of a “race to the bottom” where companies could locate in the area where it was financially advantageous for them.

He stated: “We can make our economy work for the majority. We can make capitalism more responsible. But I tell you this - we can only do it together.”

He went on: “Reform in one country and not in another would simply mean companies moving a few miles north or south to where rules are easiest for them.

“Rather than advancing fairness together, the risk is a race to the bottom on bank regulation, on wages and conditions at work.

“We can achieve more progress together.”