General Election 2015: Gordon Brown accuses Tories of 'setting England against Scotland' in campaign

The former PM was speaking at the University of Glasgow

The former Prime Minister speaking at Glasgow University (PA)

The 2015 general election is not about the future of the United Kingdom, but about the “very existence of the UK”, the former prime minister, Gordon Brown, has said.

In a lecture at the University of Glasgow ahead of a ceremony awarding him an honorary doctorate, Mr Brown accused the Conservative Party of intentionally “setting England against Scotland” by counterposing a Conservative government “against an imaginary SNP-led Labour government controlled from Scotland.”

He said David Cameron had deserted the Union and British nationalism for “English nationalism”, leaving the SNP “playing a Scottish card and the Tories playing the English card.”

He accused Mr Cameron of warning against a “Scottish menace” that was intended to foment anti-Scottish sentiment in England. The Tories, he said, believed this was a “magic formula” that could avoid 7 May being a referendum on their record.

He said the Conservatives had staged a back-stage “push” for an agreement that would bring Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, into the high-profile TV debates, making her “the only Scottish representative on our screens.”

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In a lecture that explored the origins of globalisation and its effect on social justice, Mr Brown made barbed diversions into the strategies of Labour’s main challengers in Scotland and in the rest of the UK.

He questioned what would happen if the Conservative policy of an annual political audit on Scotland – the Carlisle Principle – found a negative influence. He said: “If they then tried to limit the powers of Holyrood that would be hammering a nail further into the coffin of the Union.”

Alongside his thesis that “the problems of nationalism cannot be solved by nationalism” he set aside time to accuse the SNP of trying to make themselves relevant outside and inside Scotland by claiming “they will run not only Scotland, but run Britain. Every day they make a new demand to appear relevant: an end to Trident, austerity, welfare cuts, the Lords.”

Gordon Brown received an honorary degree in recognition of his contribution to public life (PA)

He said that as the SNP could not win extra votes in Scotland by saying they would support a Tory government, they have instead backed a Labour government. “That,” said Mr Brown, “is different from what they say to themselves in private. They have never in their lives supported Labour at any time in any election.”

He said “The answer to globalisation is not atomisation but cross countries co-operation.”

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