Brown: I'll fight, fight and fight again to renew the union

Mr Brown warned attempts to allow only English MPs to vote on English matters was a "direct nationalist appeal" to head off opposition from the extremes.

The Labour stalwart, surrounded by party colleagues, also insisted Britain must continue to fight to shape the world beyond its shores.

He acknowledged the British people are better than they are often presumed by their leaders, and are ready to respond to a more caring, less selfish vision for the country contained in the "me too, me first, me now, me above all, me whatever" manifestos.

Speaking during a session enabling departing MPs to make farewell speeches, the MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath said: "I leave this House feeling a huge amount of gratitude, but also with some concern.

"I sense that the UK today is fragile, it is at risk and we are potentially at a point of departure.

"Countries at their best, their strongest, their truest, are more than places on the map, they are more than a demarcation of borders.

"Great countries stand on shared foundations. They are guided by unifying ideals. They move forward in common purpose.

"And so it must be in Britain, and whatever the future in the constitutional revolution that is now under way, I will fight and fight and fight again to renew and reconstruct for a new age the idea of Britain around shared values that can bring us together and advance a common Britishness.

"A shared belief in tolerance, in liberty and fairness that comes alive in unique British institutions like the National Health Service and in common policies for social justice.

"And it's because I believe in Britain's future that I'm saddened, and I'm really sorry to have to say this, that for the first and only time in 300 years of the Union it has become official government policy to create two classes of elected representatives in this House."

Mr Brown, who first became an MP in 1983, criticised the English votes for English laws plans developed by the Tories, explaining: "This is to mimic the nationalists by driving a wedge between Scotland and England - and this only to head off opposition from the extremes with a direct nationalist appeal to the English electorate.

"It is not so much 'English votes for English laws', it is 'English laws for English votes', and I ask this House to remember that our greatest successes as a country have not come when we've been divided and not come when we have turned inwards, but when we have confidently looked outwards and thought globally, our eyes fixed on the wider world and the future."

The former chancellor said Britain needed to once again lead better co-ordination between nations and never become "spectators or watchers on the shore, when the world needs us, in Europe and beyond" to champion action.

He said: "Yes, the predominant feeling in our country is an anger at elites I can see in people's eyes and hear in their voices.

"Yes, too, of the many social changes that I have witnessed in 30 years, one of the most dramatic has been the fall in religious observance.

"But I also sense that the British people are better than leaders often presume.

"They are ready to respond to a vision of a country more caring, less selfish, more compassionate and less cynical than the 'me too, me first, me now, me above all, me whatever' manifestos."

With an eight-minute time limit on the speech, shadow chancellor Ed Balls was among those encouraging Mr Brown to allow Labour's Clive Efford (Eltham) to intervene to allow himself an extra minute to speak.

After allowing the intervention, Mr Brown concluded: "I have spoken today of what endures beyond anyone's time in office and I want to leave here as I came here - with an unquenchable faith in the future.

"The future for our country that we can build and share together, a future where we help shape the world beyond our shores, a future where we always demand the best of ourselves.

"This is the future worth fighting for."