Gordon Brown to present Scotland petition to Westminster

Following the Scottish referendum, politicians from all parties have been pledging that further devolution of powers to Scotland will happen.

At the forefront of the campaign to ensure that Scotland does receive more powers from Westminster (and without any ‘strings attached’) is Gordon Brown. Today, he will announce that in two weeks times he will bring a petition to Westminster calling for the government to honour it’s promise to give Scottish Parliament more powers.

Brown will bring this to the Commons as part of a debate on Scotland due to take place on the 16th October.

While attempting to hold the government to account on promises made during the referendum campaign – and reject any potential ‘strings attached’ to the deal – Brown is also using this petition as a way to unite people within Scotland. He called upon ‘No-voting and Yes-voting people both to sign the petition supporting the original vow of a stronger Scottish Parliament’.

He has explained that:

“The real goal is to unite Scotland within the UK by delivering the original promises and new powers intact – and not to allow Scotland to be divided from the UK by diminishing the status of Scottish representation, as on budget decision-making on taxes, and distancing Scotland from the  UK. 

The petition is a call for unity around the original undiluted programme of strengthening  the Scottish Parliament and I urge more people in Scotland to sign it.”

As it stands, almost 100,000 will have signed the petition by the end of the day but this figure is expected to increase over the next two weeks.