DAVID Cameron has insisted he will not resign if Scotland votes for independence in September.
A number of Tory politicians have privately suggested the Prime Minister would have no choice, given the scale of any defeat, to step down. One unnamed minister said recently: "It would be very difficult because he would go down in history as the Prime Minister who lost the Union."
Mr Cameron was speaking before visiting Scotland next week to campaign in European election and on the independence referendum.
Asked about whether his premiership rested on success in the referendum, the Prime Minister replied: "My name is not appearing on the ballot paper. I don't even have a vote in this Scottish referendum.
"I believe, as Prime Minister, I did the right thing by enabling this vote to go ahead, but the vote is about whether Scotland stays in the United Kingdom or separates itself from the United Kingdom. It is not about my future, it is about Scotland's future."
He added: "In the end, you can't hold people in an organisation against their will and that is the case with the United Kingdom and the case with the European Union. So I have taken the right decision to answer these questions about Britain's future, rather than duck them."
His remarks follow those of Downing Street earlier when a spokesman made clear the PM would not have to resign if there were a vote for independence as the referendum was about the "future of Scotland not about the future of individual politicians".
Last month, when asked if Mr Cameron's job was on the line, Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, said: "You could equally ask the question about the leader of the Opposition and the leader of the Liberal Democrats."
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