“The door is closed to Labour in Blantyre,” came the mocking cry from the Yes campaigner standing on the pavement outside the house where Ed Miliband was awkwardly waiting for a response to his knock.

The former mining town, eight miles south-east of Glasgow, where Labour founder Keir Hardie was born, was the perfect symbolic location for the the party’s current leader to appeal to core voters to reject the idea of Scottish independence. But things are not always so straightforward.

In a speech at Blantyre Miners Community Resource Centre on the subject of social justice, Mr Miliband told supporters that Scotland would only be made fairer if the country voted No and then elected a Labour government. “We can build a more just Scotland within a more just United Kingdom. True to the traditions of our pioneers, true to the traditions of the heroes of Scotland,” he said.

Stating that it was a “very important moment” in the campaign, Mr Miliband announced that Labour was sending some of the party’s big hitters north next week to rally support and attack First Minister Alex Salmond’s policies on social justice, such as the cutting of corporation tax post-independence.

Scottish Independence: For and against Show all 24 1 /24 Scottish Independence: For and against Scottish Independence: For and against Vivienne Westwood YES: “I hate England. I like Scotland because somehow I think they are better than we are. They are more democratic.” Getty Scottish Independence: For and against Bob Geldof NO: "This argument needs to be had among us all, you can't selfishly resolve it amongst yourselves by taking an easy opt-out clause." Getty Scottish Independence: For and against Leonard Cohen UNDECIDED: “People are trying to make their lives significant,” he said. “[They] are engaged in a struggle for self-respect and significance.” Getty Scottish Independence: For and against James McAvoy UNDECIDED: “If you vote for continued unification or independence there is no protest vote – that’s it. And that could be it for decades, for centuries. There’s no going back from it." Getty Scottish Independence: For and against Bill Clinton NO: “Unity with maximum self-determination sends a powerful message to a world torn by identity conflicts that it is possible to respect our differences while living and working together. This is the great challenge of our time. The Scots can show us how to meet it.” Getty Scottish Independence: For and against George Galloway NO: “There will be havoc if you vote Yes in September. Havoc in Edinburgh and throughout the land and you will break the hearts of many others too… I know which side I’m on. I’m with JK Rowling. Just say No.” Getty Scottish Independence: For and against David Beckham NO: “We want to let you know how very much we value our relationship and friendship. Of course regardless of your decision that will never change, however, my sincere hope is that you will vote to renew our historic bond which has been such a success over the centuries and the envy of the entire world. What unites us is much greater than what divides us. Let's stay together.” Getty Scottish Independence: For and against David Bowie NO: "Scotland stay with us" Rex Features Scottish Independence: For and against Eddie Izzard NO: "You can be Scottish, you can be British and you can be European. We can have that. “I say have the parliament, have the more power, but be with us. Like David Bowie said, ‘Stay with us Scotland’ and I’m saying the same – don’t go." Getty Scottish Independence: For and against Frankie Boyle YES: "It’s an ‘aye’ (for Independence) from me, man." Association of Online Publishers Scottish Independence: For and against Andy Murray NO: "I started competing for Great Britain when I was 11. A lot of people forget that. I didn't like it when Salmond got the Scottish flag up at Wimbledon" GETTY IMAGES Scottish Independence: For and against The Proclaimers YES: 'Scotland has huge national resources, with its people, its wave power – all the possibilities that this country has...we need to take charge of our own affairs' Gary Calton Scottish Independence: For and against Susan Boyle NO: "I am a proud, patriotic Scot, passionate about my heritage and my country. But I am not a nationalist." Rex Features Scottish Independence: For and against Chris Hoy NO: "It will weaken the British team obviously if Scotland went separately, and it would be harder for the Scottish athletes, initially, to establish themselves in a new training environment, with new coaches, with a different environment altogether." Scottish Independence: For and against Alex Ferguson NO: "Eight-hundred-thousand Scots, like me, live and work in other parts of the United Kingdom. We don't live in a foreign country; we are just in another part of the family of the UK" Getty Images Scottish Independence: For and against Alan Cumming YES: "The evidence is clear - in the past 15 years we have become stronger economically, socially, culturally and globally. The world is waiting for us and I know Scotland is ready." Kalpesh Lathigra Scottish Independence: For and against Emma Thompson NO: "Why insist on building a new border between human beings in an ever-shrinking world where we are still struggling to live alongside each other?" Carlo Allegri, Reuters Scottish Independence: For and against Billy Bragg YES: Independence would "create a new settlement that puts people before profit. Those in England who believe that our own society needs to be rebalanced along similar lines should wake up and join the debate" Getty Images Scottish Independence: For and against Marcus Brigstocke NO: "If Scotland go their own way (based on fingers crossed, f**k the Tories, William Wallace bollocks it'll be a damn shame. Still wish 'em well" Scottish Independence: For and against Rod Stewart NO: "I'd hate to see the union broken after all these years. It's always been a spiritual home - but as I don't live there I shouldn't comment on independence. If it's good for the Scots I'm happy." PA Scottish Independence: For and against Sean Connery YES: "As a Scot and as someone with a lifelong love for both Scotland and the arts, I believe the opportunity of independence is too good to miss" Rex Features Scottish Independence: For and against Al Kennedy NO: "Salmond has the warm potato head of a man who is Scottish and – we hope – no threat" Rex Features Scottish Independence: For and against Annie Lennox YES: "There is an opportunity for something innovative and visionary. Scotland could have some kind of new, ethical, visionary stance and it could take on some fresh ideas. That could be amazing, really amazing." Getty Images Scottish Independence: For and against Morrissey YES: "They must cut ties with the United King-dumb. I love Scotland, and I love the Scottish spirit and they do not need Westminster in the least." Getty Images

The offensive will feature Ed Balls and Baron Prescott, and will culminate in a major rally in Glasgow next Friday, where Mr Miliband will be joined by the former prime minister Gordon Brown and Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont.

It is a drive that the party badly needs – but some argue it is already too late. There is strong evidence that growing numbers of traditional Labour supporters are intending to vote Yes in the referendum, angry at how the party has aligned itself with the Conservatives on certain issues. A YouGov poll this week revealed that support for independence among Labour voters had risen from 18 per cent to 30 per cent in the past month. A Blantyre passer-by distilled the party's problem into a two-word insult: “Labour Tories!”

One lifetime Labour supporter at the speech, who declined to be named, said Mr Miliband should stand down as leader in the event of a Yes vote. “I think he’s a nice chap, but a lot of the MPs they’ve brought in up here are not streetwise. You have to be able to talk to people on the street and be able to understand what they’re saying,” she said.

Asked by The Independent if he would consider resigning as leader if Scotland voted for independence, Mr Miliband replied: “It doesn’t matter. We’re fighting to win this referendum and I believe that’s what’s going to happen. This is not about any one individual, this is a big question for Scotland.”

Other voters in Blantyre were less than charitable about the party’s decline in its former heartland. “We’re all ex-Labour supporters – but now they’re just Tories in red ties,” said Tom McQuade, who was holding a Yes placard.

“Mr Miliband’s come up today to a place he doesn’t even know – he probably couldn’t even put a finger on a map of where it is. He told us two months ago he’d come up to Scotland and spend the last six weeks living here. But they never even told us he was coming to Blantyre today.”

He added that “90 per cent” of people in Blantyre were still Labour supporters, but claimed that the “vast majority” would be voting Yes on 18 September. “Very few will come out and say it, because it’s not what Labour want them to do, but when it comes down to private and personal voting, they’ll be Yes,” he said.