Boris Johnson must reform UK to stop Scottish independence, says Gordon Brown

Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown has challenged Boris Johnson to “change” course and bring in major reforms to prevent the SNP boosting support for Scottish independence.

Mr Brown urged Mr Johnson to set up a constitutional inquiry, create a new forum for leaders of the four devolved nations, and consider greater powers for the Scottish government.

Launching a new campaign appealing to “middle Scotland,” the former PM claimed most Scots were focused on greater cooperation between Scotland and the UK right now, rather than another referendum on independence.

“Can you make the United Kingdom work better? We need a review of the whole constitution,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “Boris Johnson has got to change. [You need] better relations between the nations.”

Mr Brown claimed middle Scotland was “certainly more Scottish than British, certainly prefer Nicola Sturgeon to Boris Johnson, [but] they actually want cooperation between Scotland and the rest of the UK.”

It comes as new Survation poll showed that only 12 per cent of Scots believe the incoming SNP government should prioritise another referendum in the short-term.

Nicola Sturgeon’s new government intends to hold an independence referendum before the end of 2023, SNP deputy leader Keith Brown said on Monday, after the for SNP and Scottish Greens won a small majority in the Scottish parliament.

“The intention to have that referendum in the first half of this parliament,” he told the Today programme.

The SNP deputy leader also claimed the UK government would not dare attempt to block any referendum legislation passed by the Scottish parliament by taking the matter to the Supreme Court.

“From what I saw yesterday when I was in the studios with Michael Gove, the UK government has no intention of taking legal action,” he said. “It would have been absurd for it to have done so.”

He added: “There are people in the Conservative party, whether in Edinburgh or Westminster, that know perfectly well it’s going to happen. Let’s agree it going to happen at the appropriate time.”

Asked by the BBC on Sunday if the UK government would block referendum legislation, Mr Gove initially answered “no”. But he later made clear it thought it was too early to consider such issues. “We’re not even going there at the moment.”

The 2014 independence referendum was agreed when the UK government granted a section 30 order (a provision in the Scotland Act of 1998) so the Scottish government could legally stage a vote on separation.

Any attempt to pass an independence referendum bill in the Scottish parliament would likely spark a legal challenge from Mr Johnson’s government.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said on Sunday that Ms Sturgeon’s most senior legal adviser, the Lord Advocate, should block any indyref2 legislation – claiming it was not in the power of Scottish government to hold a vote on separation.

Mr Brown also challenged Ms Sturgeon to publish “all the legal advice” on a referendum bid from the Lord Advocate and her senior law officers. The former Labour PM predicted the advice would “tell her she’s in danger of having a Catalonia-style wildcat referendum”.

Mr Brown also urged Ms Sturgeon to answer questions on what independence for Scotland means on big issues like border arrangements. “The big issue is not the referendum, the big issue is independence,” he said.

“I would challenge Nicola Sturgeon, she’s had years to think about this, tell us what independence means – the benefits, tell us the costs, tell us about the pound, tell us about the pension, tell us about the border, tell us about quantitative easing.

“None of these questions have been answered and every time you ask her she says she is going to produce a plan some time. We actually should have answers to these questions by now.”

On Sunday the SNP’s deputy leader said Ms Sturgeon would put forward a “detailed white paper” on independence in due course. However, Mr Brown conceded that the contents of the document “doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what will happen in an independent Scotland”.