You can't quit UK without my approval, David Cameron warns Scots as First Minister Alex Salmond pushes for a referendum



David Cameron has warned Scotland's First Minister about a referendum

David Cameron is heading for a showdown with Alex Salmond over the plan for Scotland to quit the United Kingdom.

The Prime Minister will confront Scotland’s First Minister after receiving new legal advice said to confirm Downing Street’s claim that Mr Salmond cannot hold a referendum without permission from Westminster.

Mr Cameron accepts that he cannot stand in the way of a referendum. But he intends to use the advice to wreck Mr Salmond’s plan to stage it in 2014 – the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, Scotland’s most famous military victory against England.

The row was taking shape yesterday as Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg branded Scottish Nationalist leader Mr Salmond an ‘extremist’ for trying to ‘yank Scotland out of the UK’ against the wishes of most Scots.

PRIME MINISTER MAKES WAY FOR A FAIRER BRITAIN

The prime minister has said he will make reforms in 2012 so that hard-working people will feel their work is being rewarded.

He said he would use the coming year to convince people that if you do the right thing and work hard you will reap the benefits.

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Telegraph he said his agenda would cover the City, Europe, personal taxation and concerns over human rights as well as an intervention against any moves to a Scottish independence.

He said there would be no abolition of the 50p income tax rate for people earning more than £150,000 and stressed there would be no 'mansion tax' in the upcoming budget, despite opposition from the Lib Dems.

Mr Cameron also made a promise to stand up to the European human rights judges who made rulings that British people did not agree with.

He also pledged to reform executive pay and said that shareholders would have to approve pay and bonuses instead of the current advisory votes.

Mr Cameron also said he had sympathy for Ed Miliband because he had a difficult job but expressed he was not fond of the constant heckling from shadow chancellor Ed Balls, because it was 'like having someone with Tourette's sitting opposite you'.

The Prime Minister is ready to use Westminster laws to force Mr Salmond to bring forward the referendum in the belief that it would stop him achieving an independent Scotland on the back of a tidal wave of Scottish patriotism.

The stand-off was compared last night by a senior Whitehall official to a ‘giant game of constitutional poker’ between the two men. It comes as the House of Lords is poised to debate new laws setting out the rules for a Scottish referendum.



The move, promoted by all party backbench peers opposed to a breakaway Scotland, is designed to stop Mr Salmond from dictating the timing of the vote – and the question on the ballot paper.

Well-placed Tory sources say Mr Cameron is ready to back the new laws in an attempt to persuade Mr Salmond to discuss how and when the referendum should be held.

One option is to include a so-called ‘sunset clause’ in the legislation that would set a deadline of 2013 for the referendum.



‘We have always said that only Westminster can decide on referendums,’ said a Coalition insider. ‘The legal advice merely confirms that we were right to hold that belief.’

Downing Street maintains that Westminster’s power over referendums was established in the Scotland Act of 1998. The Prime Minister wants the referendum to be run by the Electoral Commission to ensure it is fair. Mr Salmond wants to offer two choices in it: an independent Scotland, or a slightly watered-down version.

Mr Cameron favours a single, straightforward ‘In or Out of the UK’ question.

Alex Salmond wants a referendum in 2014 so people can decide if Scotland should become an independent country

Scots Tory peer Lord Forsyth, who is leading the campaign to keep Scotland in the UK, said last night: ‘The idea that we should decide the fate of the UK on the basis of the date of a medieval battle when we are in the middle of a financial crisis and youth unemployment of one in four would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.’

Mr Clegg said Scots wanted more home rule, but did not want to leave the UK. ‘That is the mainstream of opinion. It is the extremists who want to yank Scotland out of the UK tomorrow, or say there should be no further change at all.’

Meanwhile Mr Cameron has said he wants MPs to be more careful when making laws and to avoid U-turns on major decisions.

According to the Sunday Times Sir George Young, the Leader of the Commons, has told colleagues that there must be fewer and better drafted laws this coming year.