RESEARCH by Scottish Labour highlights the "family of nations" that underpins the United Kingdom, showing there are more than 730,000 Scots-born people living south of the Border and in every single parliamentary constituency across England and Wales.
As the idea of the social union across Britain is being promoted both by the pro-UK parties and by the pro-independence Nationalists, Labour has obtained up-to-date data through a series of parliamentary questions at Westminster; Northern Ireland is not included in the figures. The data shows:
l The greatest number of Scots are still to be found in Corby, the Midlands industrial town, with a Scottish-born population of 8676.
l The top 20 locations for Scots include Berwick, Blackpool, Milton Keynes, Cambridge and London.
l The area with the fewest Scots is Blaenau Gwent in South Wales, which has a Scottish-born population of just 239.
"When we talk about a family of nations, it's not just an Act of Union that keeps us bound together, it's family ties," declared Margaret Curran, the shadow Scottish secretary. "There's no better demonstration of the links that bind us across the UK than the Scots who live in England, Wales and Northern Ireland."
The Glasgow MP insisted that the 730,000 Scots, who lived in England and Wales and were spread all round the UK, demonstrated the partnership between the nations of Great Britain.
"With separation, the SNP want to make England and Wales foreign countries but these numbers show that no matter where you go in England and Wales you'll find people from Scotland and that's a sign of our strength and our influence in the United Kingdom."
But the pro-independence leadership has also extolled the virtues of the social union, which, it says would continue after independence. Angus Robertson, the SNP leader at Westminster, stressed that, despite the changes that would occur, "what remains unchanged... is that which matters to people across these islands; our social union, which we share and works well".
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