The Prime Minister has formally refused to go head-to-head with Scotland’s First Minister in a televised debate on the independence referendum.
The issue is a matter for “Scots living in Scotland” and should not become a glorified general election, David Cameron wrote in a letter to Alex Salmond.
Any TV debate should instead involve Alistair Darling, the Labour MP leading the Better Together campaign to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom, he claimed.
“It is a well understood and reasonable principle that you get to pick your own team’s captain, but not your opponent’s as well,” the Tory leader wrote.
“I understand why you might wish to pursue a diversionary tactic. It is a convenient means of deflecting attention away from the real issues – the lack of credibility of your plans for a currency union, funding pensions and managing volatile oil revenues.
“You want the independence debate to be an argument between you and me; the Scottish Government and UK Government; the SNP and Conservative Party – in fact anything rather than what it really is about. Nor is your argument with the rest of the United Kingdom, it is with the people in Scotland.”
The consequences of the vote on September 18 next year will be “irreversible” and be felt long after both politicians have retired from politics, he continued.
“The referendum is therefore too important to be reduced to the status of some glorified general election,” he wrote.
“People should cast their vote in the knowledge that they are deciding not just for themselves, but also for their children, grandchildren and succeeding generations.
“It is for people in Scotland to decide. And it is right for you and Alistair Darling – as the leaders of the respective campaigns, with votes to cast as well as votes to win – to debate head-to-head on TV.”
It follows repeated invitations from Mr Salmond who insists the Prime Minister is the most senior politician arguing for a No vote.