EDINBURGH, September 7 (RIA Novosti), Mark Hirst – The leader of the UK Labour Party, Ed Miliband, has warned that a ‘Yes’ vote would lead to guards being sent to patrol England’s northern border with Scotland.
“If you don’t want borders, vote to stay in the United Kingdom,” Miliband, who is Leader of the Opposition at Westminster, told the Scottish Mail on Sunday newspaper.
A spokesman for Miliband later added, “The last time I looked there were two sides to the border – and we would be in charge of one of them. It would be up to us, not Mr. Salmond, to secure our northern border.”
The Labour's leader's comments appeared to be backed by unnamed UK Government source in Downing Street who told the same newspaper, “All the research shows that if there is a material difference between the immigration policy adopted by an independent Scotland and the rest of the UK, then border controls would have to be introduced.”
The UK's only other land border lies between the independent Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. There have been no border controls on that border since 2005.
Miliband’s comments come as a new opinion poll published Sunday put the pro-Scottish independence ‘Yes’ side ahead for the first time in the campaign.
The poll, by mainstream polling firm YouGov and commissioned by The Times newspaper, shows the ‘Yes’ side on 51 percent with support for ‘No’ on 49 percent.
In just 11 days Scottish voters will go to the polls in a referendum to be held 18th September and will be asked one question, “Should Scotland become an independent country?”
A ‘Yes’ vote will end the 307 year-old Union between Scotland and England.
The former UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, writing in the Sunday Mirror newspaper suggested the swing to ’Yes’ had resulted from increasingly right-wing policies being driven by the Conservative led Government in London. The Conservatives have only one elected MP in Scotland.
“Many [Scots] are angry that the bedroom tax was imposed upon Scots against their will while at the same time the very wealthy received tax cuts. The [pro-independence] Scottish National Party (SNP) also claim that the ramifications of any Tory privatization of the NHS in England will cut budgets in Scotland,” Brown wrote.
In a statement given to RIA Novosti, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon MSP of the pro-independence SNP said, “This breakthrough poll shows that ‘Yes’ has the big momentum.
“Scotland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world,” Sturgeon added.
“More and more people are beginning to realize that a ‘Yes’ vote is Scotland's one opportunity to make that enormous wealth work better for everybody who lives here, create more jobs, and protect vital services such as the NHS from the damaging effects of Westminster privatization,” Sturgeon said.
