Gordon Brown warns of British disintegration
Former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has warned of the disintegration of the UK, unless “sweeping” constitutional changes are made to contain deepening centrifugal forces.
Brown outlined his fears for the future in two separate interviews for the BBC and Sky News.
The former Prime Minister, who succeeded Tony Blair in 2007 before being ousted in the May 2010 general election, has called for a “council of the north” to prevent the breakup of the UK.
In his interview with Sky News, Brown decried Prime Minister, Boris Johnson’s “cosmetic gestures”, a thinly-veiled reference to the PM’s suggestion of moving the House of Lords to York in a bid to burst the “Westminster bubble”.
Turning Johnson’s general election slogan on his head, Brown claimed that “getting Brexit done is in danger of leaving Britain undone”.
"We have got to face up to the fact that unless we fundamentally change our constitution, Scotland may succeed [sic – secede?] from it and the regions will feel uncomfortable within it”, Brown proclaimed.
BBC interview
Meanwhile, in his interview with the BBC, the former Labour PM struck a morbid tone, claiming that the UK's three hundred year old history “may at some point soon be over".
Speaking to the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg, Brown called for the empowerment of local “communities” and the “regions” to assuage the UK’s aggravating centrifugal forces.
“We have a far too over-centralised state based in one part of the country - an administrative, political and financial centre that excludes power from people out in the regions”, Brown told Kuenssberg.
This is the second time within six months that Brown has warned of the insidious breakup of the UK. Back in August 2019 he wrote in the Observer that the union was facing its most “serious constitutional crisis since the 17th century”.
The former Labour PM fired his latest dire warnings against the backdrop of a seemingly irresistible Scottish independence movement and growing calls for Irish unity in the wake of Brexit uncertainty.
In addition, Welsh nationalism is on the rise as is growing calls for “regionalism” within England and the transfer of wealth and power away from the south-east of the country.
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