Pro-union campaign offers Scots new powers

Scottish voters will be given guarantees of new powers over tax, welfare and spending for the Scottish parliament if they reject the independence referendum on September 18th.

The Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats have each put forward proposed changes in recent months but were not prepared to agree a pre-referendum pact before now.

That is likely to change this week in the face of an opinion poll which put the Yes side ahead for the first time. The YouGov poll reported that support for Yes now stands at 51 percentage points, with 49 per cent for No – excluding seven per cent who have yet to make up their minds.

Rejecting the three-party guaranteed offer as involving no new, previously unannounced powers, the Yes, Scotland campaign said it indicated the panic in the No campaign.

The polling numbers were released as British prime minister David Cameron arrived at Balmoral Castle, the royal family's Scottish retreat, for his summer audience with Queen Elizabeth.

Queen concerned

Meanwhile, the

Sunday Times

reported, in words that have not been questioned by Buckingham Palace, that the queen now feels “a great deal of concern” about the referendum result. Saying a timetable for extra devolution would be announced within days, chancellor

George Osborne

warned that

Scotland

would not be part of sterling if its quit the union.

“No ifs, no buts, we will not share the pound if Scotland separates from the UK. [People] should be in no doubt about the consequences of this decision. “Scotland will not be sharing the pound as an independent country with the rest of the UK if the separatists win the vote,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

Engulfed in alarm

Scotland’s deputy first minister,

Nicola Sturgeon

, argued that the London-based parties had refused to agree new powers for Scotland until they were “engulfed in alarm” by the YouGov poll. “I think the No campaign is missing the fact that this campaign in Scotland has moved beyond any place where people can have the wool pulled over their eyes.

“If the No campaign parties had any serious intention of delivering substantial new powers for Scotland, then why has it taken until 10 days before polling day?” she asked. Worryingly for the No side , the YouGov poll shows that a majority of Scots are prepared to vote Yes even though they believe they will be financially worse off.

Meanwhile, leading business executives are privately alarmed at the latest turn in the campaign and furious with both David Cameron and Labour for the way in which it has been fought. “We stayed out of the campaign, largely because people told us it would be all right, but it has been a mess from start to finish,” one said.

Hurried discussions took place between many of them over the weekend to discuss how they can strengthen the warning that many – but far from all – business leaders have issued about the risks of independence.