Better Together ask for no more donations after post-debate surge

The Better Together campaign for a pro-UK outcome in the Scottish independence referendum has requested that they are sent no more money from supporters, after Alistair Darling’s TV debate against Alex Salmond last week saw a large increase in the number of small donations. According to a message posted on the official website yesterday, they have now reached their campaign spending limit:

“Due to the generosity of our supporters across Scotland we have now secured enough funding to meet our permitted spending limit in the campaign regulated period and are no longer seeking donations to Better Together.” 

The campaign, which was already comfortably ahead in the polls before the debate, has enjoyed a surge in momentum since last Tuesday. One poll last week saw Better Together take a 22% poll lead over Yes, while Labour MP Margaret Curran will today say that Salmond is losing the argument with Scotland’s women.

At a Labour summit for women’s organisations in Edinburgh, she will point out that only a quarter of women plan to vote for independence:

“It is now clear that women are backing the no campaign. Just yesterday, the social attitudes survey showed that there is a twelve point gap between women and men backing independence. Only 27 per cent of women now support independence.

“For any of us who have spent time talking to women about the referendum over the past two years, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Women are concerned about their own future and their family’s future, and Alex Salmond and the SNP haven’t given them any of the answers they need.

“Last Tuesday night, women across Scotland saw the First Minister struggle to answer the most basic questions about the economy. And on doorsteps across Scotland this weekend, women told me the same thing. They don’t want to take this risk with their family’s future.

“Alex Salmond is playing fast and loose with Scotland’s economy, and we know it. And his way of managing our money, goes against the way most of us would manage our own.”

Curran says that the First Minister’s inability to say what an independent’s currency will be leaves people worried about “the impact it would have on our mortgages, our interest rates, or how much we pay for our weekly shop.”