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Scottish independence: Nigel Farage pitches in to save the union with Glasgow Ukip rally

The party was turned down by the official Better Together campaign

Lizzie Dearden
Friday 04 July 2014 15:40 BST
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Nigel Farage's party is appealing to disillusioned Labour supporters
Nigel Farage's party is appealing to disillusioned Labour supporters (Getty Images)

Ukip is aiming to boost the case for keeping the union by holding a rally in Scotland just days before the independence referendum in September.

Nigel Farage elected to hold the event in Glasgow, rather than Edinburgh, perhaps wary of the capital after a run-in with student protesters last year.

After being turned down by the official Better Together campaign, which is supported by the three main pro-union parties, Ukip is planning its own drive of anti-independence door-knocking and leafleting across the country.

Ukip has had limited success across the border but David Coburn became the party’s first Scottish MEP in the European elections, where it won 10 per cent of the vote.

The referendum itself does not cover the issue of European Union membership, only asking whether voters want Scotland to remain part of the UK.

But Alex Salmond has insisted an independent Scotland will remain part of the EU.

Ukip is hoping to sway voters with the reversed proposal of a united Britain without EU membership.

“I don't even believe this is a referendum on independence, it is a referendum on separation from the United Kingdom,” Mr Farage told The Telegraph.

“The formula that Salmond is proposing is that they swap Westminster for Brussels. There has not been an open and honest debate about that.”

The rally is expected to be around 7 September, although an exact date has not been set.

“That’s the target but because of how people have behaved at recent events, we have to tell the police and so on,” a Ukip spokesman told the Independent.

“Scotland is less Eurosceptic than England but not by a wide margin.”

A spokesman for the Yes Scotland campaign seemed hopeful that Ukip’s involvement would push more voters their way.

“Nigel Farage is a massive embarrassment for the No campaign,” he added.

“He is even less popular in Scotland than David Cameron and George Osborne”

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