Gordon Brown warns over 'chaos and constitutional crisis' of voting SNP

Gordon Brown has warned that the Scottish nationalists want SNP MPs in Westminster in order to force a second independence referendum.

The former prime minister said that SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon’s answers on the issue are “all evasion” and that her party want “chaos and constitutional crisis” at Westminster to force another referendum on Scottish independence.

He warned that those casting their vote on 7 May would be deciding the future of Scotland for the next few years.

Brown was speaking during a joint event with local Labour candidate and shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, at Elderslie village hall in Renfrewshire.

Brown said: “There is an SNP candidate in this constituency. She says vote SNP, get SNP MPs at Westminster and we will twist their arms and get another referendum.

“Remember what the SNP used to say: the referendum was once in a generation, then it changed a little to once in a lifetime, then it was once every 15 years and now when you ask Ms Sturgeon about this her answers are all evasion. She cannot give a straight answer to the question.

“But does not the SNP candidate in this constituency tell the truth, that what they want is an SNP vote not to deliver social justice but to deliver the chaos and constitutional crisis at Westminster to as she said force a second referendum.

“And I say I don’t want the divisiveness, I don’t want the bitterness, I don’t want the acrimony, I don’t want the divisions between families and communities in the next few months that we had in the past few months.

“And when you vote on 7 May remember that you are not just voting to end Tory austerity and the possibility of five more years of the bedroom tax and everything else, you’re also voting on whether you are going to allow the SNP to use your vote to try to force a second referendum on this country within a few months or after the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections.”

Brown urged people to vote Labour to end the bedroom tax, food bank poverty, zero-hours contracts and the neglect of the NHS.

He also said that Labour would hold an economic summit immediately after the general election, to boost jobs, expand city deals, encourage investment and provide jobs and training for young people.