Former prime minister says UK is ‘sleepwalking to oblivion’ as Sadiq Khan says he is open to a unity government

Growing nationalism is pulling the United Kingdom apart, driving it towards an unprecedented economic calamity and unleashing the most serious constitutional crisis since the 17th century, Gordon Brown warns on Sunday.

In his most dire warning about the impact of a no-deal Brexit on the union, the former prime minister states that England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are “devoid of a unifying purpose” capable of holding together amid the threat of crashing out of the EU.

Writing in the Observer, he says unionism is “sleepwalking into oblivion”, fuelled by a “destructive, populist, nationalist ideology” deployed by Boris Johnson. He joins other senior Labour figures in pleading for urgent action against a no-deal Brexit.

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“If we are to understand why we are facing not only our most serious constitutional crisis since the 17th century but at the same time an unprecedented economic calamity precipitated by a no-deal exit from the European Union, we must recognise that nationalism is now driving British politics,” he writes.

“It follows that only thus – as an outward-looking, tolerant, fair-minded and pragmatic people – can Britain recover its cohesion and common purpose. These precious ideals could not survive the divisiveness and chaos of a no-deal Brexit. To prevent the rise and rise of dysfunctional nationalism the first step is to stop no-deal in its tracks.”

His comments come amid mounting fears that a no-deal Brexit would hasten the end of Scotland’s membership of the UK. Three-fifths of Scottish voters (60%) believe that support for Scottish independence would increase after a no-deal Brexit, according to new Focaldata polling for the anti-racist Hope Not Hate campaign. Most Tory supporters said they regarded the end of the union as a price worth paying to achieve Brexit. Some 57% of Conservative party supporters agreed with this view, in a separate UK-wide poll of 3,200 adults for Hope Not Hate.

Brown’s demand for action against a no-deal Brexit comes as Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, becomes the most senior Labour figure to call on his party to consider backing a national-unity government to stop no-deal Brexit. He suggests that, while the “starting point for any conversations” about a unity government should be that it is led by Jeremy Corbyn, other options should not be excluded. “There is no time for parliamentary poker, no time to bluff,” he writes. “You’re either committed to stopping no-deal – the default outcome – or you’re not. We can’t trust the Boris Johnson government not to play fast and loose with our country’s future, so decisive action must be taken.

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“I will give my full support to any efforts required to stop an undemocratic no-deal – whether that be a general election, taking control of the parliamentary order paper, or even a temporary government of national unity, if, as many constitutional experts are now saying, this is the only way to stop Boris Johnson and his catastrophic no-deal Brexit for sure. The starting point for any conversations about an alternative government that can command the confidence of parliament must be that it would be led by Jeremy Corbyn as the leader of the opposition and by far the biggest party opposed to no deal.”

The pleas from two of Labour’s biggest beasts come after a week in which anti no-deal MPs have been unable to agree who should head a temporary government if Johnson were to lose a vote of no confidence in September. Rebels trying to stop no-deal now regard an attempt to change the law as the most likely first avenue explored to stop it going ahead.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jean-Claude Juncker warned this weekend that Britain would be the ‘big losers’ from a no-deal outcome. Photograph: Stéphanie Lecocq/EPA

Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, warned this weekend that Britain would be the “big losers” from a no-deal outcome. “If it comes to a hard Brexit, this is in no one’s interest, but the British would be the big losers,” he told the Austrian paper Tiroler Tageszeitung. “They pretend it’s not like that, but it will be … We have made it clear that we are unwilling to renegotiate the exit agreement.”

Brown accuses Johnson of turning the Conservative and Unionist party into the “Conservative and Brexit party”. He adds: “Unionism appears to be sleepwalking into oblivion and the United Kingdom – once admired around the world for an understated but comfortably unifying Britishness that was inclusive, outward-looking, tolerant and ultimately pragmatic – now presents an ugly picture: of bitter division, intolerance and introversion so extreme that it has sacrificed common sense in favour of a dogmatic abandonment of its own best interests.”

Brown also accuses the shadow chancellor John McDonnell of falling “straight into the nationalist trap” by saying a future Labour government would not stand in the way of demands for a second Scottish independence vote. McDonnell’s comments caused huge anger within Scottish Labour and he inflamed the dispute by later suggesting Corbyn supported his position.