Gordon Brown: UK could become a ‘failed state’ without reform

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the U.K. will either become a “failed state” or be “reformed” as he urged politicians to counter support for Scottish independence.

Brown’s intervention comes after a Sunday Times poll found people in all four nations of the United Kingdom believe Scotland will leave it in the next decade — with Brexit and the U.K. government’s response to the pandemic seen as having accelerated the trend.

Writing for The Telegraph, Brown said the U.K. “must urgently rediscover what holds it together and sort out what is driving us apart,” and warned that the “world’s most successful experiment in multinational living is under greater threat than at any time in 300 years.”

“I believe the choice is now between a reformed state and a failed state,” he said.

Brown led the Labour Party as prime minister from 2007 to 2010, and is reported to have held talks with the Conservative government’s Michael Gove as pro-unionists consider how to respond to rising support for an independent Scotland.

The former prime minister is meanwhile running a review of Labour’s own position on the constitution for party leader, Keir Starmer, as the party tries to rebuild its battered Scottish base. Polls suggest elections to the Scottish Parliament later this year will hand a further boost to the pro-independence Scottish National Party.

To heal ties between the four nations, Brown recommends promoting the “glue” that is the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) and armed forces, and placing “a focus on the everyday benefits of cooperation and reciprocity.” He also wants the country to celebrate the “history, tradition, culture and the longevity” of British institutions.

As well as support for an independent Scotland, The Sunday Times’ poll found that 42 percent of people in Northern Ireland want to see unification with the Republic of Ireland, while almost a third of those in Wales would support an independence referendum.