Emily Thornberry Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury
Scotland remaining in the United Kingdom doesn’t just matter to Scotland, it matters to Islington too. Not because we don’t think Scotland could cope by itself but because we believe that everybody’s better, Scots, English, Welsh and Northern Irish, when we’re all united.
As the Yes Campaign have argued, becoming independent stops Scotland ever being ruled by a Tory government again. But by Saying ‘No thanks’ to the referendum Scots can help get rid of the Tory Government’s policies across Islington and the rest of the UK too. The Scots can help ensure that the bedroom tax is not only abolished in Scotland, but across the rest of the United Kingdom. Because in the end the Union is all about solidarity and ensuring social justice for everybody living in the UK.
The Labour movement was founded on the principle of solidarity. We know that we achieve more together than we can do alone and that divisions only serve to make it harder for all of us. In an increasingly connected world surely unity is better than division, answers are better than uncertainty and Scotland is better in the United Kingdom.
Over our shared history we’ve all benefited from being in the Union. We’re a small island off the coast of Europe and the only way we have ever achieved anything, either at home or abroad, was as a United Kingdom. Together we have been the birthplace of the industrial revolution; we liberated Europe in 1945 and we created the National Health Service.
With less than a week to go until Scotland goes to the ballot box, I’m asking all of you, with friends and relatives living in Scotland, to call them and let them know that we don’t want them to leave us. To tell them that you want Scotland to remain part of the United Kingdom because surely, we’re better together.