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Andy Murray says 11th hour Scottish Independence tweet backing 'Yes' campaign is not something he 'would do again'

The Team GB tennis ace was questioned by the BBC over whether he regretted sharing which side of the debate he was backing ahead of the vote

Jenn Selby
Wednesday 24 September 2014 07:37 BST
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Andy Murray pictured during his quarter-final defeat
Andy Murray pictured during his quarter-final defeat

While Andy Murray wouldn’t take back sharing which side of the debate he was backing hours before Scottish Independence polls opened for voting, the Team GB tennis champion has admitted that it isn’t the type of overshare he’ll be making again soon.

Asked by the BBC whether he had any regrets over his ‘Yes’ vote tweet, he replied: “I don’t regret giving an opinion.

"I think everyone should be allowed that. The way I did it, yeah, it wasn’t something I would do again.

"I think it was a very emotional day for a lot of Scottish people and the whole country and the whole of the UK, it was a big day.

"The way it was worded, the way I sent it, that’s not really in my character and I don’t normally do stuff like that."

The Scottish athlete faced a barrage of abuse from users on Twitter after posting the message, sent out despite the fact, as a resident of Surrey, he couldn’t vote in the referendum himself.

His latest comments come after he confirmed he would still be representing Britain in the Davis Cup and at the next Olympics.

"I will be there in March," he told the Daily Mail on 19 September, after the ‘No’ vote result of the referendum had been announced. "As far as I'm concerned the vote doesn't change anything in that regard."

The campaign for and against Scottish independence had a particularly high turn-out – not just the 87 per cent who voted at the polls on 18 September, but of the famous faces who lent their signatures, careers and reputations to backing the ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ campaigns that preceded it.

Ultimately, it was the Better Together campaign that triumphed, preserving the nation’s 307-year-old union with England after a historic, record-breaking electoral referendum.

The result means David Cameron faces mounting pressure for constitutional change within Westminster, after he promised Scottish voters he would give them more power if they rejected independence.

It also saw scores of strident celebrity pro- and anti-Union voices desperately taking to Twitter with posts of patriotic pride or disappointment.

Find out what JK Rowling, Russell Brand, Nigel Farage and more had to say about the outcome here.

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