Alex Salmond is ”worried” about how Scots have responded to his plans for independence, the man leading the fight to keep Scotland in the UK has claimed.
Former Chancellor Alistair Darling said the First Minister is attempting to ”muddy the waters” by pushing for a second referendum question on more powers for the Scottish Parliament because he fears outright separation will be rejected.
He was speaking after being joined by Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, in addition to several members of the general public, for the Better Together launch event in Edinburgh on Monday.
The campaign aims to make a ”positive case for staying together” when Scots go to the polls in the referendum Mr Salmond says he will hold in autumn 2014.
But there have been suggestions in recent days that the SNP are pushing for a second question on more devolution to also be included in the crunch vote.
Asked about this, Mr Darling pointed to polling data showing that of those certain to vote 55% oppose independence and only 35% are in favour.
”He wants a second question because it’s increasingly obvious he is afraid of the first,” he said. ”He’s worried what Scotland will say in response to the fundamental question, which is whether or not to stay part of the UK.
”I have this growing feeling he is looking at the polling evidence and coming to the view that anything that muddies the waters might help his cause.”
Making his return to frontline politics for the speech at Napier University in Edinburgh, Mr Darling warned that voting to end the 300-year-old union with England would be ”irrevocable” and represent an ”inadequate response” to the problems facing Scots today.
Mr Darling further argued that Scotland could have the ”best of both worlds”, with a strong parliament at Holyrood and a secure place in the United Kingdom.
”If we decide to leave the United Kingdom, there is no way back,” he said. ”We can’t give our children a one-way ticket to a deeply uncertain future.”
The Better Together event came one month after the Yes Scotland campaign was launched to persuade Scots to vote for independence.
It featured Hollywood stars Brian Cox and Alan Cumming outlining why they believe Scotland would be better off outside the UK.
In contrast, Better Together featured contributions from Scots who Mr Darling said have ”little to do with politics but they are absolutely passionate about Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom”.
Former Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie introduced the ”real people” she said will help ”decide Scotland’s future”.
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The group included Miss Inverness 2010 Ceilidh Watson, whose partner is training to be an officer in the British Army, alongside a retired soldier, a young farmer and an Englishman who said he was happy to make Scotland his adopted home.
Better Together say the drive to keep Scotland in the UK will use the latest technology together with traditional door-to-door campaigning, with half a million leaflets being delivered.
Blue State Digital, the media strategy firm which helped bring US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande to power, has been recruited to build a website and oversee the online campaign.
Mr Darling said leading the campaign for the Union was ”one of the most important things I have ever done in politics”.
He added: ”I believe we can cement Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom once and for all and then get on with building the Scotland we want and deserve.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie closed the campaign launch by pledging: ”We’ll take nothing for granted. In the campaign to keep our family together, we will work for every single vote.”
He accepted that Scottish nationalists were ”passionate about their cause” of independence, but added: ”I am determined that we will lead a campaign that will match them, and more, with our passion.”
Mr Salmond attacked the campaign launch, noting it came on the same day Prime Minister David Cameron unveiled welfare reforms that could lower benefit payments in Scotland.
He said Mr Darling’s argument suffered from three failures: ”Firstly, he claimed that the Union was a ‘celebration’ of Scottish values, on the very day that the Prime Minister of that political union is proposing to eliminate housing benefit for young Scots.
”Secondly, the anti-independence campaign’s claim to be making a positive case has been exposed as a fraud. Alistair Darling’s presentation was littered with words such as ‘borders’, ‘division’ and ‘upheaval’ expressing arguments better suited to the 18th century than to the 21st.
”Thirdly, Alistair Darling said not a single word about the anti-independence campaign’s alternative vision of more powers for the Scottish Parliament.”
Mr Cameron gave his backing to Better Together, saying: ”Politics is too often about division. But today, three political parties are joining forces to celebrate the United Kingdom and say it is something worth fighting for.”
Photo by David Cheskin/PA Wire